Regulating File Sharing: Using Law, Internet Architecture, Markets and Norms to Manage the Non-Commercial Sharing of Digital Information

Non-commercial file sharing, sometimes referred to as piracy, has been framed as a problem that harms creativity and the ability to make money from digital content. The world's regulators have responded by locking down new technologies and outlawing the activities of some of the greatest innovators of the digital age. Despite this, file sharing has continued to play an important role in the lives of digital consumers. Regulating File Sharing examines this phenomenon from four key viewpoints - legal regulation, the architecture of the internet, the role of the market and the norms of the file sharing community. Utilising the results of a major study, this exhaustively referenced text reveals how the fundamental design of the internet can never be truly controlled by legal regulation without destroying the foundation of the internet itself, and that the adaptation of market practices to fall in step with the norms of the file sharing community is the key to harnessing the behaviour of non-commercial file sharers.