available to their advertisers to market other products
or services to you. Others may push spam at your
e-mail. Read terms of service carefully and decide how
much you are willing to “pay” to get free programming
or other services or products online.
Even with the very low pricing on downloading con-
tent, many are tempted to share content that they
don’t have the rights to give away. It may seem harm-
less, but it isn’t like loaning a book to a friend. The
idea that you may inadvertently steal content catches
many seniors by surprise. Even if you share down-
loaded content with only a few friends, any artwork in
a fixed tangible form automatically has copyright pro-
tection. Any use of music, a photo, video, or other art-
work without express permission of the creator is an
infringement of copyright. Loaning or giving such a
file to someone else is violating copyright and consti-
tutes an act of plagiarism.
209Chapter 10: Being Entertained Online