Intellectual Property News

Users May Be Unaware Of Threats From Filesharing Programs

The Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has released a report that concludes that the distributors of five popular filesharing programs repeatedly deployed features that they knew or should have known could cause users to share files inadvertently. The report, Filesharing Programs and “Technological Features to Induce Users to Share,” identifies five features in recent versions of five popular filesharing programs that could cause users to inadvertently distribute to others downloaded files or their own proprietary or sensitive files.

“Computer programs that can cause unintended filesharing contribute to copyright infringement, and they threaten the security of personal, corporate, and governmental data,” noted Jon Dudas, under secretary of commerce for intellectual property—the Bush Administration’s point person on copyright policy.

The report shows that distributors of filesharing programs deployed features that could cause inadvertent sharing even after repeated warnings that these features could facilitate identity theft and breaches of personal and national security.  For example, in 2003, two Congressional hearings were prompted by research indicating inadvertent sharing could be caused by search-wizard and share-folder features.  After the hearings, many distributors adopted a Code of Conduct that prohibited use of these features.  Nevertheless, in 2004 and 2005, many of these same distributors kept deploying more aggressive versions of search-wizard or share-folder features.  Many distributors also deployed other features, like partial-uninstall and coerced-sharing features, that also had a known or obvious potential to cause inadvertent sharing. Read more at uspto.gov.

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	Did You Know?
	USPTO examines patent applications. The US patent office examines patent applications to decide if the applicants are entitled to the exclusive rights.