WARNING! Employees' Entertainment May Be Employers' Headache

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.

The music industry has taken a tough stance, recently filing copyright infringement suits against more than 500 individuals in just one day in February 2004. While, up until now, the industry has been targeting teens and their parents, it is only a matter of time until it begins filing actions against the employers whose employees are downloading at work – using the employer's computers and systems to make unauthorized copies of music or other media files. Indeed, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has already sent letters to thousands of companies, notifying them that their employees are using their computer systems to illegally swap music files. Lawsuits are, undoubtedly, the next step.