File sharing is the act of sharing downloadable files on the Internet with other Internet users. This act is very common and often illegal. Often times the files being shared are supposed to be bought but are being shared and dispersed to thousands of Internet users for free. There are many off-shore sites that people can visit to download torrents, pdfs, and more.
P2P is peer-to-peer computing which equally disperses the liability amongst the people involved. This means that people intertwined in P2P both upload and download the content being shared. A popular network is BitTorrent. BitTorrent involves "seeding" which means that a user can upload a file and allow other users to download the file as long as they stay online in the P2P network. The uploader provides the "seed" for the other users. As discussed in "The BitTorrent Effect" article, the more popular the original seed file is, the quicker it can be downloaded.
It is obvious why there are so many new laws being brought to light in regards to P2P sharing. Many industries such as entertainment and book publishing lose tons of money each year due to file sharing. The touchiness of the subject is discussed in "Should Online Scofflaws Be Denied Web Access?". The topic of freedom of information being a defense for online file sharing is brought to light in this article.
Thank you for sharing how seeding works. I've heard about this term in file sharing, but never really knew how it actually worked. And yes, as most of us would agree, I believe that this is a huge issue and a very controversial one.
ReplyDeleteReally appreciate the fact that you mention that " Many industries such as entertainment and book publishing lose tons of money each year due to file sharing.".... This is definitely one great concern about P2P technology especially 'copyrights and piracy'
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