Peer to Peer File Sharing Networks - Essay Example

Technological advancements have made such a tremendous impact on our lives, that today it is considered an element of luxury, as it makes everything easily accessible at the touch of a button and our fingertips. File sharing via a specific set of networks called Peer to Peer or P2P sharing is one such breakthrough in technology, which has become increasingly popular over the years. It gives users access to both legal (material available under a creative commons license) and illegal (copyrighted material) files ranging from images, music, movies, software, etc for free. At present, a majority of these P2P file-sharing networks offer very few limitations as to the kind of files that are being exchanged across this network, especially since this type of sharing is done directly with other computers, meaning, you are downloading from another person’s computer and vice versa. In the end, it will leave a user being entertained or gratified while the copyright laws of the content creators are being breached.
Producers invest a lot of money in it expecting to make a profit from sales. The only thing is that it is not being sold; instead, it is being distributed for FREE by probably millions!
Due to the nature of this file sharing, each computer downloading from the other, a more rational argument on who to blame for the illegal activities taking place there would be the administrators. It is almost certain that there are professionals out there who can maybe add some HTML script to the site to help differentiate between copyrighted material, non-copyrighted material, and material available under a Creative Commons License. Copyrighted material should be blocked from being added to the site and its searches in the first place. This way, copyrighted material cannot be downloaded from a particular P2P site and this is the administrator’s responsibility.
Personally, the Researcher uses a P2P network. Despite its unscrupulousness, its lack of restrictions screams “it’s a flea market, buy nothing, and get everything free!” However, despite all this illegality with file sharing, one article expert from about.com, Mark Harris described Bit Torrent as a legitimate file sharing program since it only offered files that are under a Creative License-meaning they are free to use. As for Lime wire, the Researcher is not convinced about its legitimacy especially after its scandalous shutdown a few years back. Read More