I am answering this question for a class and i need outside opinions other than my own. anything would be great!

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Short answer: "Yes" (You have my permission to use my answer, or any of the information on our website for your project. Check out "10 Software Piracy Misonceptions" at http://sadien.com/docs/sadien_10_software_piracy_misconceptions.pdf) Copyright law at-a-glance. Under federal law, a copyright owner has specific exclusive rights. These rights include the rights to duplicate, distribute, create derivatives, and publicly display a Work. To transfer anything via a peer-to-peer network, you must OWN the copyright (or have written permission from the copyright holder in certain circumstances). This is where people get confused. Ownership of a copyright means that you actually created the material or own the copyright (like George Lucas owns Star Wars). Purchasing a CD, DVD, song on iTunes, or buying software is not a purchase of the copyright... it is a purchase of a license to use the copyrighted material. It is not "yours." One copy is licensed to you, for your private use. Think of a song, video or software application like a rental car. When you rent a car, you don't get to keep it. You don't own the car, you own the right to use the car for a period of time. When you buy a song, you purchased the right to use a copy of the song. In most cases, you purchased the right to use the copy "forever." (In some instances, specifically with software... your purchase of the right to use an application is limited on time... like a month, or year.) Uploading or transfering material that you do not own, is very serious. I often see responses on here like... "lol, what are they going to do? Come to your house? lol" Yes. 6 years ago Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed a federal lawsuit against a 12 year old little girl, and subpoenaed a dead grandmother for testimony in trial. Both you and the other parties on the network could be prosecuted as follows, for each violation: -- Cost to defend and win a copyright lawsuit: $500,000 (avg) -- Cost to defend and lose a copyright lawsuit: $500,000 (avg) + up to $150,000 (statutory), or more -- Cost to defend and settle a copyright action: $8,000 to $15,000 (avg), per violation -- Criminal penalties that can be imposed by the government: Up to 5 years in prison and $250,000 fine (first offense) Hope this helps... G.C. Hutson, Chief Executive and Senior Partner Sadien Intellectual Property, Inc. http://www.Sadien.com