Illegal File Sharing

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What Does Illegal File Sharing Mean?

Illegal file sharing is the process of sharing and distributing files illegally over a network or Internet.

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This includes the practice of distributing, selling or publishing copyrighted and protected content to the general public, usually over the Internet, or with a compact disk or external storage device.

Techopedia Explains Illegal File Sharing

Illegal file sharing is primarily done by “digital pirates.” They copy and upload proprietary material over the Internet for end-user viewing and download without the consent of the file owner. The shared file can be anything from a document, image, music or movie to software. Material shared illegally is also known as pirated media or content. P2P networks, torrent applications and many online movie streaming websites are common methods of illegal file sharing.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.