To date, over 18,000 peer-to-peer users have been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America. While word of these suits is spreading, few supervising adults have the technical knowledge to determine whether and to what extent pirating may be occurring via a computer and Internet connection for which they are legally responsible. While the actual impact of digital piracy is nearly impossible to precisely calculate, the threat of financial damage from illegal peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing to the world's highest-grossing entertainment firms (and even entire industries!) has garnered attention from government, industry, and academic leaders and criminal justice professionals. Oftentimes, those providing access to computers and file sharing capabilities - parents, schools, libraries - don't know about or understand these activities and, therefore, put themselves and their families at risk for criminal and civil prosecution. This work describes the technological, legal, social, and ethical facets of illegal peer-to-peer file sharing. Geared toward parents, teachers, librarians, students, and any other computer user engaged in file sharing, this book will help readers to understand all forms of traditional and digital copyright violations of protected music, movies, and software. It covers the nuts and bolts of file sharing, from the technology to the legal implications. It educates parents, teachers, librarians, and general computer users about the dangers of illegal file sharing. It considers social, economic, and technological consequences of online piracy.