File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multi-media (audio, video), documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented in a variety of storage, transmission, and distribution models. Common methods are manual sharing using removable media, centralized computer file server installations on computer networks, World Wide Web-based hyperlinked documents, and the use of distributed peer-to-peer (P2P) networking.
While file sharing is not of itself illegal, the increasing popularity of the mp3 music format in the late 1990s led to the release and growth of Napster and other software that, while designed simply to aid in the sharing of electronic files, in practice led to a huge growth in illegal file sharing: the sharing of copyright protected files without permission. Other popular networks include Gnutella, Gnutella2, eDonkey2000, the now-defunct Kazaa network, and BitTorrent.
Many file sharing networks and services, accused of facilitating illegal file sharing, have been shut down due to litigation by groups such as the RIAA and MPAA. During the early 2000s, the fight against copyright infringement expanded into lawsuits against individual users of file sharing software.
The economic impact of illegal file sharing on media industries is disputed. Copyright holders and publishers refer to studies concluding that unauthorized downloading of movies, music and software is unequivocally damaging the economy, although other studies suggest file sharing is not the primary cause of declines in sales. Illegal file sharing remains widespread, with mixed public opinion about the morality of the practice.
Types of file sharing
There are many options for sharing files on the Internet, one of the most popular is peer-to-peer networks, or P2P networks. Some of the most popular networks are FastTrack, Gnutella, Gnutella2 and eDonkey network. With these networks, the user downloads a program to their computer that allows them to connect to the network. Then with this program the user can search the shared media on other users’ computers and download this media from them across the Internet. These networks allow the sharing of any type of digital content, including songs, DVD-quality movies, computer programs and video games.
One of the most popular ways to get very large files like movies, computer applications, and video games is to use BitTorrent, another type of peer-to-peer network. With BitTorrent large media files are broken down into smaller chunks, which are then transferred to the user (or peer) depending on the fastest possible connection to the missing piece; all of this is done while the user is uploading the pieces it already has to other users. While this type of file sharing is most popular and useful for large movies and games, it can also be used for music, but usually users download music by the album or artist instead of a couple of songs.
File sharing can be done with no use of peer-to-peer technologies, for example by the use of a file hosting service. These sometimes also provide collaboration tools such as forums and groups, and allow links for direct downloads to be embedded in other communications such as emails and websites.
History
Main article: File sharing timelineFiles were first exchanged on removable media. Computers were able to access remote files using filesystem mounting, bulletin board systems (1978), Usenet (1980), and FTP servers (1985). Internet Relay Chat (1988) and Hotline (1997) enabled users to communicate remotely through chat and to exchange files. The mp3 encoding, which was standardized in 1991 and which substantially reduced the size of audio files, grew to widespread use in the late 1990s. In 1998, MP3.com and Audiogalaxy were established, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was unanimously passed, and the first mp3 player devices were launched. MP3.com offered music by unsigned artists, and grew to serve 4 million audio downloads daily.
USENET was created in 1979. It is a network that was initially based on the UUCP protocol for dial-up connections and has, since being transported over the Internet, used a specialized client-server protocol, the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP). Its main purpose was the exchange of text based messages, but through attachments allows users to encode files and distribute them to participating subscribers of Usenet newsgroups. USENET remains one of the largest carriers of file sharing and Internet traffic. Recently legal challenges to P2P systems have spurred a resurgence of Usenet. USENET has also been itself the target of legal challenges pertaining to its use in file sharing.
In June 1999, Napster was released. Napster is a centralized unstructured peer-to-peer system, requiring a central server for indexing and peer discovery. It is generally credited as being the first peer-to-peer file sharing system. In the Napster case, an online service provider cannot use the "transitory network transmission" safe harbor in the DMCA if they have control of the network with a server. Many P2P products will, by their very nature, flunk this requirement, just as Napster did. Napster provided a service where they indexed and stored file information that users of Napster made available on their computers for others to download, and the files were transferred directly between the host and client users after authorization by Napster. Shortly after the A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc. loss in court Napster blocked all copyright content from being downloaded.
Gnutella, eDonkey2000, and Freenet were released in 2000, as MP3.com and Napster were facing litigation. Gnutella, released in March, was the first decentralized file sharing network. In the Gnutella network, all connecting software was considered equal, and therefore the network had no central point of failure. In July, Freenet was released and became the first anonymity network. In September the eDonkey2000 client and server software was released.
In 2001, Kazaa and Poisoned for the Mac was released. Its FastTrack network was distributed, though unlike Gnutella, it assigned more traffic to 'supernodes' to increase routing efficiency. The network was proprietary and encrypted, and the Kazaa team made substantial efforts to keep other clients such as Morpheus off of the FastTrack network.
In July 2001, Napster lost in court and was shut down. This drove users to other P2P applications and file sharing continued its exponential growth. The Audiogalaxy Satellite client grew in popularity, and the LimeWire client and BitTorrent protocol were released. Until its decline in 2004, Kazaa was the most popular file sharing program despite bundled malware and legal battles in the Netherlands, Australia, and the United States. In 2002, a Tokyo district court ruling shut down File Rogue and an RIAA lawsuit effectively shut down Audiogalaxy.
From 2002 through 2003, a number of popular BitTorrent services were established, including Suprnova.org, isoHunt, TorrentSpy, and The Pirate Bay. In 2002, the RIAA was filing lawsuits against Kazaa users. As a result of such lawsuits, many universities added file sharing regulations in their school administrative codes. With the shut down of eDonkey in 2005, eMule became the dominant client of the eDonkey network. In 2006, police raids took down the Razorback2 eDonkey server and temporarily took down The Pirate Bay. Pro-file sharing demonstrations take place in Sweden in response to the Pirate Bay raid. In 2009, the Pirate Bay trial ended in a guilty verdict for the primary founders of the tracker.
As of 2009, BitTorrent via uTorrent and Azureus and the trackers & indexing sites, Gnutella via Limewire and the eDonkey network via eMule are the most popular networks. All most popular networks and protocols including BitTorrent, eDonkey, Gnutella, Gnutella2, FTP and HTTP are aviable together via Shareaza, the open source multinetwork client. Services like iTunes account for much of legal music sales, and sites like YouTube and various one-click hosting providers allow file sharing through uploads to their servers.
Copyright and controversy
Main article: Copyrighted content on file sharing networksA significant number of people share files in a way that infringes on the rights of copyright holders. Copyright holders have challenged the legality of file sharing networks. This has led to litigation by industry bodies against certain private individual file sharers.
The legal issues surrounding file sharing have been the subject of debate and conferences.
Digital rights management is intended to curb copyright infringement by preventing file sharing but has proved unpopular with consumers due to the restrictive usage policies imposed.
US legal controversy
In Sony Corp. v. Universal Studios, 464 U.S. 417 (1984), the Supreme Court found that Sony's new product, the Betamax (the first mass-market consumer videocassette recorder), did not subject Sony to secondary copyright liability because it was capable of substantial non-infringing uses. Decades later, this case became the jumping-off point for all peer-to-peer copyright infringement litigation.
The first peer-to-peer case was A&M Records v. Napster, 239 F.3d 1004 (9th Cir. 2001). In the Napster case, the 9th Circuit considered whether Napster was liable as a secondary infringer. First, the court considered whether Napster was contributorily liable f