Dallas, Texas — For years law enforcement have been fighting digital theft. Without naming them there are thousands of businesses (digital services provided over the Internet) and artists (entertainment industry/movies/music) that are continuously being stolen from by users that believe that they can take everything that entertains themselves no matter what the consequences are to those businesses or artists.

Theft Of Digital Service And Material Over The Internet At Highest Levels And Getting Worse

Some say this is subsequent to what is known as the “Free Internet Culture” that arrived when the Internet had been promoted, in order to get people to use it. During this time, nearly everything over the Internet could be found free of charge. What had been happening is that when the providers were offering services literally for free, the providers were actually paying for it to be free for the user. After the users became normalized to the Internet, the providers began charging for the what now is called “Entertainment” or “Practical Services”. Therefore it seems that the “Providers” and “Artists” left the short lived tradition of “Everything is Free!”, the users of the services and entertainment all didn’t and have left a precedence on today’s Internet user.

Today, the battle we fight against digital theft is broad but more defined. Most people now know that if they are downloading music with-out paying for that particular song or making an agreement to pay for a service they are about to render and not pay, they are stealing. There are warnings everywhere. They can not be missed.

With new markets becoming available around the world, the battle on theft of digital services and goods has just begun. Most of the new users to the Internet around the world will not be endowed monetarily. Some of these new users t the Internet will be the next generation of digital goods and services thieves. You could think of it like the “Gold Rush” theory, when someone wants something so bad, they will take measures to get it, even stealing it.

Thousands and thousands of people have suffered convictions for digital theft and the list of convictions keeps growing and growing. Every day there is news of how individuals are arrested and charged with Internet piracy and other types of theft of Internet services. Founders of Megaupload, have been charged with multiple types of digital theft and practices, and that list keeps growing as well. THere is know telling how many millions of dollars had been lat to that group by the artists and producers of the materials that were wrongly downloaded by their users. Sure you can put a number on it but that number would only be relative.

So how do you know if something is free and when you can legally download something?

Look for legal policies. With every download/song/movie, the artist/owner has a policy. Either find the policy or contact the owner for their policy. Otherwise, there should be an option somewhere to purchase the items. Make no assumptions because policies and agreements matter more to judges than dollars signs or amounts. If the artist/owner has a policy, or you make an agreement on a service, that is the focus the judge will have if suspect of theft of digital service. No matter what your doing over the Internet, reading is fundamental. (R.I.F.)