Published authors: stop the illegal file sharing hemorrhaging

Recently I was made aware of a file sharing site that reportedly had digital copies of published books, as well as music and other copyright content.  I had a look for myself, and found this to be true.

The site, 4shared.com, has thousands – maybe tens of thousands – of copyrighted books, music, and other content, freely online and available for anyone who wants to browse the site and download content.

Readers: it is illegal to post copyright content in any form online, unless you are the legal owner of the content or have written permission from the owner.  It is against the law.  Do not be deceived by the lure of free content.

Professionals: if you are found to be in possession of illegally copied protected content, you may be in jeopardy of losing your professional licenses or certifications.  You can also be sued by the copyright owner.

4shared.com will remove content on request.  It is necessary to state, in detail, who the owner of each item is, and why it should be removed.  Digital copies of many of my books were on the site, and I filed removal requests for each.  Yes, it was time consuming.  To request illegal content be removed, send an e-mail (with the full URL of the offending item(s)) to abuse@4shared.com, or visit http://www.4shared.com/contact.jsp , click on the “Copyrighted Materials” link, and complete the short form there.

The extent of illegal content on 4shared.com is appalling – it is a cesspool of of illegal content.  A quick search showed that almost one-thousand “For Dummies” titles were on the site.

Integrity and intellectual property

On some of my mailing lists I have seen messages recently that suggest that persons are willing to send and receive copyright materials.

Exercise extreme caution when offering or accepting study materials that are not in their *original* form. If you transmit or receive electronic (or paper) copies of copyright materials such as study guides or study questions, there is a good chance that both the sender and receiver are breaking international copyright laws, which is both a crime as well as a violation of the ISACA Code of Ethics.

Sending or accepting such materials also compromises your personal and professional integrity. This will make you ineffective as IT audit professionals and leaders. See these two articles for more information:

Personal integrity: the keystone in an infosec career

A call for character and integrity

The road of higher integrity is not always the easy road. Taking the path of high integrity requires sacrifice and it is often difficult. You will, however, be a better person for it, both personally and professionally. And your conscience will allow you to sleep at night!