They're designed to let people easily exchange music, movies, videos and other files over the Internet. But they're not as harmless as they might seem. Their use raises important issues regarding copyright law, network traffic and security. Sharing copyrighted files is illegal File-sharing applications have been widely implicated as tools that violate copyright laws. So is downloading those files.
Some artists do allow their works to be freely copied, but they're very much the exception.
You should assume that all works have copyright protection unless they explicitly state otherwise. It is extremely important to respect the intellectual property rights of others. In addition to education, we need to make sure we enforce our institutional policies. Cornell takes allegations of copyright infringement seriously and will not tolerate illegal activities on our networks. If the university is notified that a Cornell community member is violating copyright laws, it will take action against that person in accordance with university policy.