U.S. Patent and Trademark Director John Dudas commissioned a report, which the patent office recently forwarded to the U.S. Department of Justice, stating that peer-to-peer networks could manipulate sites so children violate copyright laws more frequently than adults. That could make children the target in most copyright lawsuits and, in turn, make those protecting their material appear antagonistic. File-sharing software also could be to blame for government workers who expose sensitive data and jeopardize national security after downloading free music on the job. "A decade ago, the idea that copyright infringement could become a threat to national security would have seemed implausible. Now, it is a sad reality. There will almost never be a legitimate business or governmental justification for employee use of filesharing programs. Nevertheless, preventing employees from using these programs on corporate or government networks can be both difficult and expensive," the report states.
News source: InformationWeek
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