You don’t need to pay a private investigator to find a lost member of your family. By simply doing your own work, you can be your own private eye and perform a little sleuthing of your own. Here’s how:

Prepare yourself for documentation.
Depending on whether you’ll be looking for several lost family members or just one, make sure you have the necessary resources for obtaining and keeping records. You will need to have a system with which to manage any documents you might come across with during your search. Continue reading "Looking for Lost Family? Tips on How to Become Your Own Private Eye"

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What seemed like the innocent display of college-style charity in terms of video and music sharing has come under fire. These days, file sharing has become synonymous to theft and recently, Nevada’s Sen. Harry Reid would like it to be declared as such. If you have some precious video or music file you want to distribute for free, should you be guilty? Here are some things you should know about file sharing and online theft:

When file sharing becomes theft.
Several months ago, students at many universities were flabbergasted to receive letters informing them that they had to pay thousands of dollars for music and video files they downloaded and shared. These letters caused a stir because they involved school administrators as well, who were the recipients.

Not knowing what you’re doing is theft doesn’t absolve you from the crime. Unfortunately, it is this very ignorance that has put many individuals in a tight spot. If the music industry and some legislators have their way, a practice that is considered normal by many high school and college students will be considered a crime and punished as such..

However, there is some contention as to what constitutes online theft. Some groups argue that file sharing will not render the industry bankrupt but it will change certain business models. This is a scenario that the industry will just have to deal with.

It’s the copyright, stupid.
In 2005, the Supreme Court produced the Grokster ruling, a landmark decision that aimed to control online theft of videos and music. However, the practice of file sharing – still illegal – is ongoing. It grew 12% from 2005 to 2006 and continues to increase, thanks to the expanding influence and use of social networking sites.

The problem is in the issue of copyright. This is intellectual property we’re dealing with and artists want to get paid for what they do. Metallica did put their point across when they said they don’t do what they do for free. Copyright becomes disrespected if people obtain a copy of that music and don’t pay the artist for it.

What you should do
If you want to add to your personal collection and still do your part as a responsible citizen, download files legally from the appropriate sites. Yes, it will cost you but these days, most music files cost less than a dollar to download and video files are also quite reasonably priced. You simply have no reason to complain and you’ll also keep yourself out of the legal radar.

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