P2P

Sharing is caring, our parents have taught us that, but does that apply to everything in an ethical manner? Copyrights and patents exist for the sake of theft prevention and to hinder those who try to take the easy way out. And this applies to the technologies of new media as well. File sharing has existed since the days computers were invented. It is the process of distributing software to other users via a network connection, which can either be LAN, or local area network or even a WAN; wide area network such as the internet. File sharing enables us to use, learn and create software. An example would to be uploading a picture that you took onto the internet, such that everyone else can download and view that picture too.

P2P file sharing means peer-to-peer. It is similar to downloading a file over the internet, but much faster. P2P file sharing breaks down a large file into smaller parts, and redirects them to users all over the internet that are currently associated with it. When someone wants to download the file, they download it collectively a few pieces at a time from many different users, and ultimately, end up with the finished file as a whole. So instead of downloading from a website's domain directly and using their limited bandwidth, P2P allows you to download a file in little bits from many other people. Perhaps the most widely used P2P file sharing method is BitTorrents.

P2P has received a lot of negative criticism in regards to illegally downloading copyrighted material. P2P is not illegal, but it does become illegal when copyrighted material comes into play. "The Pirate Bay is a BitTorrent tracking site in Sweden with 150,000 users a day. In the fall, it posted a torrent for Shrek 2. Dreamworks sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding the site remove it. One of the site's pseudonymous owners, Anakata, replied: "As you may or may not be aware, Sweden is not a state in the United States of America. Sweden is a country in northern Europe [and] US law does not apply here. … It is the opinion of us and our lawyers that you are fucking morons." Shrek 2 stayed up." In Clive Thompson's The BitTorrent Effect, he explores how P2P file sharing has evolved during the decade.P2P file sharing has been around for years, but the ethics of legality is always at face when it comes to copyrights. And P2P websites are still live and up are because laws differ in every country, and lawsuits take a long time to be settled, dragging on the lifespan of illegal software sharing.