Results 1 to 10 of 35

Thread: File sharing, is it just plain piracy?

Threaded View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #1
    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Cape Town
    Posts
    4,923
    Thanks
    576
    Thanked 934 Times in 755 Posts

    File sharing, is it just plain piracy?

    File sharing is a plague that's bringing complete industries to their knees and leaving a sea of starving artists in its wake by blatant copyright violation and the inability of anyone to police it......or is it?

    File sharing makes the news as the shady underbelly of the internet that kids use to obtain the latest movies and music, the system that terrorists use to hone their bomb-making techniques, the reason the music/movie industry is on its knees.

    File sharing is a blanket name for any system that allows for the sharing of any material in electronic format with any other computer users who would like to download it. It's also known as 'piracy' or simply theft, although there's no violence and deck swabbing involved and the original file is only copied and left untouched so these descriptions might not be technically accurate.

    In the old days this was usually done simply by someone putting that material on a web server where anyone who knew where it was could simply download it directly onto their own PC as a single file. The problem with all the material being on a server was that it was easy for authorities to take down large amounts of material by raiding one location.

    Systems naturally evolved. Nowadays there are torrents. The torrent system is decentralized, the files being shared are not in one place.



    From Wikipedia;
    First, a user playing the role of file-provider makes a file available to the network. This first user's file is called a seed and its availability on the network allows other users, called peers, to connect and begin to download the seed file. As new peers connect to the network and request the same file, their computer receives a different piece of the data from the seed. Once multiple peers have multiple pieces of the seed, BitTorrent allows each to become a source for that portion of the file. The effect of this is to take on a small part of the task and relieve the initial user, distributing the file download task among the seed and many peers. With BitTorrent, no one computer needs to supply data in quantities which could jeopardize the task by overwhelming all resources, yet the same final result—each peer eventually receiving the entire file—is still reached.

    After the file is successfully and completely downloaded by a given peer, the peer is able to shift roles and become an additional seed, helping the remaining peers to receive the entire file. This eventual shift from peers to seeders determines the overall 'health' of the file (as determined by the number of times a file is available in its complete form).



    The reality is that there's a wealth of information out there that's available through file sharing systems and is useful to the man on the street, the business owner and the tradesman. Information that would include the latest trade journals, codes and standards from all over the world.

    I use file sharing for reference material just about every week. I want to know about the latest solar energy engineering techniques, the building regulations in the Ukraine or the latest advances in LED lighting technologies file sharing is the tool I use to do it. When I've learned what I need to know I dump the material I've obtained and no longer need and on to the next project or hobby.


    My question is do you think file sharing can be a valuable and legitimate tool or should it be blanket banned? Would you ever use file sharing as a way of obtaining information (and if you did would you draw the curtains first)?
    Last edited by AndyD; 19-Jan-10 at 11:43 AM. Reason: Fighting with bbcode for formating.

Tags for this Thread

Did you like this article? Share it with your favourite social network.

Did you like this article? Share it with your favourite social network.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •