File sharingFile sharing is the activity of making files available to other users for download over the Internet, but also over smaller networks. Usually file sharing follows the peer-to-peer (P2P) model, where the files are stored on and served by personal computers of the users. Most people who engage in file sharing are also downloading files that other users share. Sometimes these two activities are linked together. File sharing is distinct from file trading in that downloading files from a P2P network does not require uploading, although some networks provide incentives for uploading such as credits or force sharing of files being currently downloaded.
HistoryNapster, originally a centralized service, was the first major file-sharing tool and popularized file sharing for the masses. Napster was an MP3-only sharing system and was successfully shut down by legal attacks from the music industry. It was openly attacked by some artists (notably Dr. Dre, Metallica) and supported by others (Limp Bizkit, Courtney Love, Dave Mathews). There was widespread media coverage of unreleased Madonna songs leaking out on to the web prior to the official commercial release. Napster was a localized index for MP3 files shared by the users logged into the system. It included IRC-like chat and instant messenger features. Almost all new, major clients now follow its example in design. Even before its legal problems, the community created an alternative: OpenNap. A reverse-engineered version of the Napster protocol, it was released as the open source server alternative for Napster users. These networks continue to exist even after Napster's collapse and many clients using this protocol have appeared, particularly with the help of the Napigator server list - an effort to centralize all of the different servers and networks. Afterwards, Gnutella, a decentralized network, appeared. This service was fully open-source and allowed users to search for almost any file type; users could find more than just MP3s on these networks. It was created/supported in response to threats towards centralized bodies like Napster. The thought behind decentralization is that no one broken link can bring about the downfall of all members. But Gnutella has experienced growing pains since its use skyrocketed. Napster and Gnutella continue to define file sharing today, forming the extreme at both ends of the law in the wake of a series of civil lawsuits filed against computer users by the RIAA (which began in September, 2003). Gnutella, a free and open protocol and service, with its lawless structure but poor scalability, while Napster having been resurrected as a legal online music service that competes with other such legal services as iTunes and Rhapsody. Most file-sharing systems since have sought to ride the line between these two extremes. Today a variety of file-sharing programs is available on several different networks. Availability depends partly on operating system, and different networks have different features (for example, multiple-source downloads, different sorts of search limiting, and so on). It is common for commercial file sharing clients to contain abrasive advertising software, or spyware. Network architectureThere are several major topics surrounding file sharing. Of them, the two primary dynamics are the benefits and drawbacks of centralization vs decentralization and privacy / anonymity, especially vs copyright protection and file-sharing legality. As well as the problem of spyware, a method for the companies that produce peer-to-peer programs to make money on their product. It is these pulls which have defined several themes of software. In the early days, client software was protocol-specific, so you had "Napster" clients, and you had "Gnutella" clients. There is an everpresent push towards making the GUI-side of things capable of using multiple protocols. After all, why should a user have to load up several different applications to do what is, in their mind, the same thing? In cases where there is perceived value in collecting, some people will have lots to share and will find themselves surrounded by eager people. This can cause problems when the collector cannot keep up with demand. Decentralization is one means to alleviate this problem, especially in cases where it is possible to ensure that multiple copies of a popular item are available from multiple sources (even simultaneously, as with multi-source downloading). Decentralization has also been widely pushed over the fear of having a centralized network attacked, either by legal disputes or hostile users. One argues that a decentralized network has no body to attack, only individual ethereal members. While the foundation protocol of the Internet TCP/IP was designed to be robust and withstand concerted attack, file-sharing and peer-to-peer systems are proving even stronger. Concepts like leeching or hoarding come about where the one centralized person will collect and will not later freely give away what was given. Trade and ratio systems evolve in order to reduce the impact of leeching. Under these systems, a person will only share when they can expect to get something in return. Kazaa has a very simple rating system. Your Client calculates your priority and tells the sources what priority they should give you. Very soon there have been hacks that your client tells the sources that you have a high priority. Another client which has a rating System is emule. Your client stores how much you have down and uploaded from one source, if you receive a file or let other peers download files from you. It seems that this rating system does not have a big impact on the download speed. A reason could be the size of the upload queue and the Chunk size. If there is a free upload slot, your client takes the peer on top, transferes 8MB to it and puts it in the Queue on the end. A peer with rating x2 would have to wait half the time than the first peer to get an upload Slot. But if the first had been in the queue since four hours or so, than the x2 Client would have to wait for two hours. This System has a very big reaction time. After your Client has received a 8MB Chunk, it should upload an 8MB Chunk to the other peer as soon as possible. Then the other client would upload one chunk to you and your download speed and the one from the other client will increase. Bittorrent also has a very good rating system. The download speed is very slow, if you don't upload anything. The future will probably be something between the emule and the overnet system: Your client and another peer decides to transfer one chunk to each other the same time and then terminate the connection. So today we are left with a slew of clients with functionality designed around making sharing files more effective, both in the real sense of uploading and downloading (like anti-leeching functions) and in the more ethereal sense of being bulletproof towards legal issues (as with anonymity and decentralization). Copyright issuesAnonymous, Internet file sharing (such as Gnutella and Napster) grew in popularity with the proliferation of high speed Internet connections and the (relatively) small and high quality MP3 audio format. Although file sharing is a legal technology with legal uses, some people (in practice, the great majority of users) have used it to download copyrighted materials. This has led to counter-attacks against file sharing in general from some copyright owners. There has been a great discussion over perceived and actual legal issues surrounding file sharing. In circumstances where trading partners are in different countries with different legal codes, there are significant problems to contend with. What if a person in Canada wishes to share a piece of source code which, if compiled, has encryption capabilities? In some countries, a citizen may not request or receive such information without special permission. Throughout the early 2000s, the entire file-sharing community has been in a state of flux, since record companies and RIAA tried to shut down as much of this as possible. Even though they have forced Napster into cooperating against copyright violations, they are way behind, since the community has flourished and produced lots of different clients, though not as many different underlying protocols. The second generation of P2P protocols, such as Freenet are not as dependent as Napster is on a central server, making it much harder to shut down these systems through court actions. Another attempt (used by the maintainers of KaZaA) is to change the company's organization so that it is impossible or useless to attack it legally. Communities and external linksPortals
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SourcesThis article was partly based on public domain material from the infoAnarchy AskFactMaster.Com.
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