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WARNING! Employees' Entertainment May Be Employers' Headache

By Margaret A. McCausland and Jennifer J. Platzkere
April 01, 2004

Most employers have come to realize that personal use of the Internet at work by employees can decrease productivity, and that employees downloading inappropriate material can lead to hostile work environment claims. What many employers have not yet thought about is the potentially explosive problems facing them as the music industry continues its crackdown on those who illegally download and share pirated music files over the Internet.

Downloading music has become as common, and as easy, as circulating cartoons via e-mail. It, too, can be done with a few clicks of a mouse, with relatively little thought and with no expense to the person doing the downloading. The cost to the employer, however, can be great. Online piracy ' which can consist of the unauthorized uploading of copyrighted sound recordings or graphics that are then made available to the public at large, or the downloading of sound recordings or graphics from an Internet site even if the recordings are not for resale ' is considered a form of copyright infringement.

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