The peer-to-peer sharing allowed on the Internet has impacted the ability for entities such as major corporations and musicians to control the use of their products and profits. Peer to peer sharing has emerged a very serious problem in the United States. Discuss the legal protections of copyright and intellectual property in the United States, and the development of those protections. Specifically discuss both common law protections as well as any statutes at issue and the penalties provided for violation of the statutes. Discuss the conflict that has developed in relation to the file sharing technology of the Internet between those who advocate freedom of information and those who advocate applying the protections of intellectual property to the Internet. Discuss recent legislative attempts to address this conflict, and present the arguments of those interests which oppose and support the legislative attempts.