The P2P File Sharing Network
Robert Marcellino
CLST 311 Spring 2010
Peer-to-peer file sharing networks (or "P2P" networks) are Internet networks which allow users with the same P2P networking program to connect with each other and utilize search functions to directly access and download files from one another's hard drives. The nodes (or peers) function as both suppliers and consumers of shared media, as opposed to traditional client/server relationships in server based networks. Peer-to-peer networks were made popular by file sharing systems such as Napster, GNUtella and Kazaa, and have subsequently redefined the way media is distributed, and most notably turned the music industry on its head. Peer-to-peer file sharing came of age during the dot.com boom and the rise of Napster. Between its debut in 1999 and its eventual failure in 2001, Napster enabled tens of millions of users to easily share MP3-formatted song files with each other. (10)
The economic ramifications in regards to money lost by record labels and music distributors have brought about a great deal of legal pressure on these "pirate networks."
English: Rally in Stockholm, Sweden, in support of...
English: A simple network consisting of source A s...
Peer to Peer LendingCastells says there are three central characteristics of the new economy we are experiencing: it is informational, it is global and most importantly, it is networked. (1) He also describes negative reactions to a network society, including the manifestation of a "global criminal economy" by those who cannot or will not contribute to something like a global capitalist network, or in this specific case, the music industry. (2) He most likely did not have young music fans who were merely sharing songs over the internet in mind when he talked about a global criminal economy, but in the eyes of the Recording Industry Association of America, this is precisely what it has come to. New file sharing...