The MPA (Music Publishers Association) and the IFPI (International Federation of Phonogram and Videogram Producers) have released a software called digital file check that can be used by usres to remove file sharing apps from computers.

It also contains a function to check ‘what files are in your “shared folders” – these files are likly to be illegal’. The app only runs on windows so i cannot test it right now, but i was wondering what happens when the app encounters a shared folder full of properly tagged Creative Commons licensed video and audio files. Has anybody tried this out yet?

It should be dirt cheap to implement a metadata check that results in a message that these files can be legally shared, but somehow i am suspecting that the programme will label them as probably illegal anyway. and i do not even want to get into the discussion of how stupid it is to call files ‘illegal’ certain uses of files may infringe on somebody else’s rights but the files themselves cannot be illegal.