Should We Ban P2P File Sharing?
Should we ban P2P file sharing?
By kavinyao, Yao
December, 2009
Intro
Peer to peer (P2P) computing, which is a specific implementation of distributed computing, has been described as a most promising technology since it can be applied to many fields and it has made great contributions. P2P file sharing, or P2P file exchanging, is one typical application of P2P and one caused great debates as well. In this paper, I will introduce the general theory of P2P file sharing, the features and drawbacks of P2P file sharing and the current situation of piracy via P2P networks. In the end, I will present possible solutions to help solve the piracy problem caused by P2P file sharing.
Part I What is P2P file sharing?
The simplest concept of P2P is: Every client as a server. To be more explicit, we use the term node instead of client to differentiate it from client-server mode, which was in dominant use before P2P file sharing appeared. In client-server mode, if anyone would like to download a file, he/she needs to link to a server where the required file is stored. Since the bandwidth of the server is fixed, large amount of client links will finally lead to lower downloading speed. This is within bearing if the file size is small, but when it comes to large files of several gigabytes, that will cost both time and patience. The P2P network does just the opposite thing! If more people are connected to you, you are expected to get a faster downloading speed. Sounds magic, doesn’t it? But that is solid truth. That is why so many people like to use P2P file sharing.
Actually, a P2P file sharing network can be set up using different indexing modes. Here I would like to focus on the pure P2P file sharing system which runs without any centralized control and where the software running at each node is equivalent in functionality. There are just slight differences between these networks compared to the different between P2P and the client-server mode. Now the P2P file sharing
By kavinyao, Yao
December, 2009
Intro
Peer to peer (P2P) computing, which is a specific implementation of distributed computing, has been described as a most promising technology since it can be applied to many fields and it has made great contributions. P2P file sharing, or P2P file exchanging, is one typical application of P2P and one caused great debates as well. In this paper, I will introduce the general theory of P2P file sharing, the features and drawbacks of P2P file sharing and the current situation of piracy via P2P networks. In the end, I will present possible solutions to help solve the piracy problem caused by P2P file sharing.
Part I What is P2P file sharing?
The simplest concept of P2P is: Every client as a server. To be more explicit, we use the term node instead of client to differentiate it from client-server mode, which was in dominant use before P2P file sharing appeared. In client-server mode, if anyone would like to download a file, he/she needs to link to a server where the required file is stored. Since the bandwidth of the server is fixed, large amount of client links will finally lead to lower downloading speed. This is within bearing if the file size is small, but when it comes to large files of several gigabytes, that will cost both time and patience. The P2P network does just the opposite thing! If more people are connected to you, you are expected to get a faster downloading speed. Sounds magic, doesn’t it? But that is solid truth. That is why so many people like to use P2P file sharing.
Actually, a P2P file sharing network can be set up using different indexing modes. Here I would like to focus on the pure P2P file sharing system which runs without any centralized control and where the software running at each node is equivalent in functionality. There are just slight differences between these networks compared to the different between P2P and the client-server mode. Now the P2P file sharing