Though hobbyists may continue to write file-sharing software away from American jurisdiction, investors are likely to steer clear of commercial P2P operations for fear of legal repercussions there.

ECONOMIST: Online pirates forced to walk the plank

Internet security firm Internet Security Solutions (nasdaq: ISSX - news - people ) has just completed an investigation into the existence of several large file-sharing networks used to trade pirated software and movies.

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The industry has failed to shut down file-sharing companies whose peer-to-peer software has legitimate applications.

ECONOMIST: Fightback or death-rattle? | The

And users from those three countries were also the most likely to engage in other risky behavior on work PCs, including reading personal e-mail, downloading music and video and even peer-to-peer file-sharing, a practice that often spreads malicious software or inadvertently gives outsiders access to sensitive documents.

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The court made software companies liable for misusing their file-sharing services and allowing copyrighted material to be easily and illegally downloaded.

CNN: Souter known as low-key, fierce defender of individual rights

The three-year research was carried out by a team of computer scientists who developed software that acted like a BitTorrent file-sharing client and logged all the connections made to it.

BBC: BitTorrent study finds most file-sharers are monitored

But today, file-sharing is one of the most cutting-edge areas of software development, as high-speed Internet connections allow users to trade music, movies and applications at a blistering pace.

FORBES: LimeWire, BitTorrent and BearShare...Oh My!

If file-sharing prevents people from selling books, CDs, DVDs, and boxed software, then copyright is dead.

FORBES: Death of Copyright Is Greatly Exaggerated

She hired a dozen software engineers to build a P2P network mimicking China's popular illegal file-sharing services.

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