Introduction
Internet started in the end of last century but extended its range around the world in few years. It is considered as an essential of running almost every business around the world. The use of internet is not limited to commercial use by businesses but it is also extensively used by domestic users for socializing with others and downloading contents from internet for their use. There are various forms of data that may be required by users according to their requirements. These forms of data may include music, movies, and software files .
There may be various aspects of downloading music, video and software application files from internet including varying ways of downloading these files to the legal and moral nature of the downloads. Subsequent sections discuss various such aspects of downloading music, video and software applications from internet.
Categories of Downloading Music, Movies & Software
Downloading music, movies and software applications can be of three major broad categories in terms of their legal and moral aspects which are discussed in this section as following:
- Legal
The legal way of downloading music, videos and software applications is the way in which a user downloads such files from a licensed distributer either through buying the content or through getting access to freeware / demo content. The legal downloading may require online payment through various ways ranging from credit/debit cards to PayPal. There are many websites which sell many products including music, videos and software applications. The best example of buying such content from a website is from amazon.com which is a well-known website for buying variety of contents over internet. There are many websites which offer freeware and licensed content for user for free. The examples of such websites include videos.yahoo.com, cnet.com etc .
There are various initiatives and measures introduced by international bodies for implementing such systems which include encouraging users to use only the legal contents through acquiring licensed copies. There are variety of discount offers placed on many products to encourage buying of contents over internet. Another way to encourage legal use of content is through allowing the users to download demo versions of content to try those out and if they are satisfied with the results of it then they may buy the full version .
- Illegal
The illegal way of downloading music, videos and software applications is the way in which a user downloads such files from a non-licensed distributer that is generally known as pirate in the industry. The illegal downloading do not require online payment but is taken against the law and various international bodies take necessary actions to catch such culprits. There are many websites which distribute many products including music, videos and software applications through illegal means. The piracy is strongly discouraged by the licensed distributers as well and they always try to point out the websites which distribute any of their content without any license. There are various initiatives and measures introduced by international bodies for implementing such systems which may discourage piracy at all levels. The users of pirated content are usually in developing countries due the reasons that the law enforcement in those countries is much loose and the users don’t either have so much money to pay for the content or they do not have access to the way of paying online .
- Immoral
There is another category of downloading music, videos and software applications from internet which is a hybrid form of legal and illegal categories. This category is known as immoral way of downloading contents from internet. This category means that the user is using a media which is not supported by licensed distributers but the user may be downloading the content that is legal to be used but in this way the user may not be clearly known to be using legal content. So the medium of downloading in this case makes the content suspicious in nature. There may be various forms of immoral downloading such as using anonymous proxy servers, Virtual Private Network (VPN). Despite the suspect of using these mediums as immoral mediums of downloading and sharing illegal content, many users and organizations use these systems to communicate in private sessions .
Methods of Downloading Music, Movies & Software
There are various methods of downloading music, movies and software which enable a user to get the desired content from internet. Users around globe use numerous websites and other content distribution agents but these may be categorized in following major methods of downloading and accessing data:-
- Downloading from Website
This method of downloading music, videos and software application enables users to directly download the desired content to their computer or cell phone devices from specific websites. This method is widely used by users and many licensed distributers of content have used this way to distribute their content over the internet by reaching out to largest market of the world. The users may get reliable content through recognizing licensed distributers and be able to avoid any counterfeiting. This method has been in use since the beginning of internet. The content downloaded directly from internet websites may require scanning for any viruses by a suitable anti-virus and anti-malware software applications especially if the content is not from a renowned website. Today’s websites have introduced ways various forms of wap versions of their websites to enable users to directly access the website from their cell phones through GPRS. Latest smartphones have include Wi-Fi and latest software technologies such as android which support the websites in their original form rather than wap in order to enable the users to access the website in original form in their cell phones.
- Peer-to-Peer Downloading
This method of downloading is widely used by either those organizations which want to share confidential information among its branches or by domestic users to download content immorally. The peer-to-peer download for an organization may include a Virtual Private Network (VPN) whereas it includes using bit torrent tool for domestic users. A VPN is essentially a completely private medium at software level which is separate from the public internet. It enables organizations to communicate within themselves without having any fear of leak of any information. This techniques uses special coding which hides the data from public users of internet. The other method which is known as bit torrent for domestic user is the way of sharing and downloading music, videos, and software applications by internet users on mutual sharing basis. In this technique the some users share the content over internet directly to others enabling them to download the content without having to access any website .
- Other Methods
There are many other methods used than the above mentioned methods for accessing music, videos, and software applications over internet. These method include following two major ways:-
- Streaming of Videos and Music
This method enables the users to directly watch and listen to videos and music respectively over internet website through streaming. There are various video and music sharing websites which offer such services. This service also includes live streaming of various TV channels and other shows etc. The streaming website may or may not offer the option to download the content depending upon their policies.
- Online installation of Software
This method is currently used by many popular software producing companies in order to ensure legal use of their software applications. In this method the software setup information file is downloaded at first and the setup is started by user. This initial file is less than one MB in size so it downloads very quickly. Then when the setup starts then it downloads the complete package of software and then installs the software application. This method has greatly reduced the issue of piracy in software .
Conclusion
Downloading music, videos and software content from internet has many aspects associated with these which every user must consider before continuing with downloads. The downloads may seem harmless when doing so from an illegal or immoral medium but it may get the users into big trouble especially for those who are in the countries which have implemented strict rules and policies for such acts. The legal use of such content also decreases the price of content due to the fact that the original producer of the content will be able to recover its cost quickly and hence will offer discounts on its products. The legal way of downloading content from internet must be encouraged at all levels to ensure growth and stability of the industry related to internet.
Works Cited
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