File sharing

Ye-es I'm back. With another subject to be ranted about in my usual good-tempered manner: File Sharing.
Many are the threads debating whether or not file sharing should be illegal and even more numerous are the posts in which posters claim that file sharing indeed is and forever should be just that.

Friends. Romans. Country hicks. Listen closely for I will say this only about a million times. File sharing is not illegal. Neither should it be. Nor is there even a slight chance that it will become so during the next few years.
No, I don't care about what You think You know. I care even less about what Your friend told You, just as little as I care about what the guy on the bus told You. But what I care the least about is what You read in "that thread" on "that forum".
Download and/or upload of copyrighted materials without permission can be copyright infringement (illegal) but the download and/or upload of non-copyrighted materials with or without permission is not illegal. Get it? Or was that too complicated?

OK, let me paint You a 10'X10' picture:

Lets pretend that I have on my webserver a "Spiderman 3" bootleg. If I was then to fit my homepage with a download link to the "Spiderman 3" bootleg I would be guilty of copyright infringement (the unauthorized use of material which is covered by copyright law). If I was to sit at home filming my feet and then putting it up on my site to be downloaded by morons, I would not infringe on any copyright.

Let me finish with this: If you think that file sharing is illegal then the entire concept of internet is illegal as it is basically a big pile of shared files. As it clearly is not (except in China), you are wrong.

Over and out