P2P filesharing has been around for a long time. It was popularized starting in 2002, when the use of broadband Internet became widespread. I was introduced to a lovely little program called Kazaa. It wasn't that great of program, though. Riddled with spyware and adware, it caused problems for my system. I used Kazaa and other P2P programs on and off until about 2003 when I quit altogether. The idea that is filesharing has been around for about 15 years. But as stated above, it didn't become popular until around 2002. In the late nineties it was impractical to download a file that was several megabytes due to the fact that connection speed was slow. For example I tried to download a 36 MB audio file on a dial-up connection on Monday morning. Granted, that the connection isn't at full speed, but I doubt a few kilobits would make a difference. With the size of files the way they are, it was (and still is) impractical. With file sizes ranging from 5-35 MB it's impractical to download a file on anything less than a 1 MB connection. And just think, if you're downloading something like video. The file sizes could double, possibly even triple.
I believe "filesharing" has been around for a while, as Virtunate suggests, in IRC chat rooms in the 1990's. But with more powerful computers, developing technology and broadband Internet really brought it into popularity. I saw Kazaa and similar programs crash someone's computer, multiple times, due to the malware that came along with them. I've never used a peer-to-peer program, myself. I have quite the CD collection - and when I bought said CDs, I believed I was supporting the artists. Which isn't actually true; the record label makes the money off CDs, for the most part - but that's rather irrelevant.
I can imagine users downloading content from a peer-to-peer network - songs, at the earliest, but now videos and software - and having no idea what they were doing was illegal, especially when it first came to popularity. And it is illegal, in most countries, although I'm not sure about my native Canada. You're violating copyright law, among other things. In most places, if you're caught, it leads to nasty lawsuits and the RIAA on your tail.
But the fact is, the main file sharing networks may be down but there is a lovely program (multiple ones actually) called BitTorrent. Basically it's a progam that instead of drawing the bandwith from a single source, draws it from multiple sources. Technology Journalist Leo Laporte gave us a good example. He seeds his podcast TWiT (This Week in Tech) on Bit Torrent evey Sunday Night. At this point it's an extremly slow download as the bandwith is only being drawn from Laporte and maybe a handful of other computers. However, by Monday morning the download is extremely fast, as hundreds if not thousands are downloading TWiT via BitTorrent. So if the file you're looking for is in high demand, you will get it quickly.
Content on BitTorrent is another matter. With the invention of Podcasting and Video Blogging/casting some of the content is legal to have under Creative Commons (CC) However some of it, including things like songs and movies are still illegal. So really the only advantage to BitTorrent is speed and lack of spy/malware.
This brings us to the point of tonight's entry: The PirateBay.org. One of the most infamous BitTorrent sites on the Internet, the Pirate Bay was raided in June by Swedish authorities, reportedly under pressure from the White House, which was, (reportedly) under pressure from the MPAA. So basically the MPAA didn't like what Pirate Bay was doing and shut it down. But it wasn't so easy. Although the Pirate Bay was shut down, it came back online in a matter of days becaue the Pirate Bay moved to a new set of servers in the Netherlands. It is now back in Sweden and it has recieved double the traffic it recived before the raid.
Actually, The Bay was back online before some news sources could get stories out of it's being down. And it's victory message was honestly rather amusing: hey.mpaa.and.apb.bite.my.shiny.metal.ass.thepiratebay.org. (The APB is the Swedish equivalent to the US's MPAA.)
I don't support filesharing; it's illegal and having produced creative work of my own, I can understand why artists might be angry about it. I wouldn't enjoy it if someone took a piece of something I'd created and distributed it without my permission. Even though several of the big names on the Canadian music scene have said they back filesharing, I stay away from it. But I don't support the RIAA, either, truthfully. Stopping filesharing is understandable - but they want to put severe limitations on what you can do with music you buy and own. If they had their way, ripping a CD you bought and paid for to your computer's hard drive would most likely be illegal.
I'm on the fence about this. I know that stealing is wrong, but what if the artist backs filesharing? Then does the RIAA or the MPAA have the right to come after you? That makes a complex legal situation even more complex. The fact is this: If the the work is licensed under the proper form of Creative Commons (there are more than one) then I have no problem using said work as I desire, as long as it's within the terms of the license. If you want people just to look at your work, use the strictest CC there is. But the fact is, the RIAA and MPAA really shouldn't have the right to go after people that have downloaded and copied one song to a CD illegally, that they can sue that person for (insert large amount of money here). And they shouldn't be able to go after 13 year old kids or 85-year-old grannies either, especially if granny doesn't have a computer.
Our Advice: Don't download illegal files. It'll get you into a world of trouble you don't want to be in.
Downloading or using legal files licensed under Creative Commons doesn't bother me. It's the illegal ones I stay away from. Because I'm not in the mood to get arrested.
posted by Virtunate @ 11:31 PM
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