Companies can use several tactics to stem the flow of unwanted media files on their networks, including blocking access or simply telling employees there's a ban. But determined workers and developers, it seems, are finding ways around such obstacles. For example, some file-swapping technology can trick a network into allowing it in by disguising itself as a mundane piece of software.

And as Napster and its underground offshoots have shown, people will find ways to collect movies and music.

An employee of Entertainment Weekly who asked not to be identified said he regularly obtains music from file-swapping sites, despite a ban on the practice by his employer, AOL Time Warner. The media giant owns one of the major record labels that successfully cracks down on such sites.

Although the company doesn't have an internal network and prohibits use of major file-swapping sites, the employee said AOL Time Warner has yet to block some smaller, more obscure sites where he can find music.

Carla Tomino, a secretary at Northwestern University, said she was fired last summer for violating a policy prohibiting personal use of company equipment by storing 2,000 MP3 files on her computer. Although firing may be an extreme case, Tomino is not alone in being punished. According to Websense, about 35 out of 250 companies surveyed in a recent poll had disciplined or reprimanded employees for downloading songs.

From my perspective, my company has all but killed any and all p2p sharing applications at the network security level. Having finagled access to a few routers and firewalls, I am again running winMX here again, but I do it only sporadically. My firm hasn't weighed in with a memo on disallowing it, but if they should, I will be one of a great many that will have to consider the risks to my financial future. The RIAA is doing its work well...

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