P2P File Sharing

Let's begin with what file sharing is and how it is used. According to Wiki, file sharing is the distribution of digital media, which may include documents, music, video, and images. The issue on file sharing is that these digital media are usually distributed illegally. People would download these files and re-upload them under their account. People usually share the files without permission, thus infringing the copyright act. An example is the movie, "The Dark Knight" which was downloaded seven million times around the world according to the article, "Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios Besides" by Brain Stelter. Anonymous users uploaded the movie online which gave millions of people around the world access to the film. These millions of people took advantage of the resource and decided to download a copy of it. Besides file sharing, there's also peer to peer file sharing also known as P2P. According to Wiki, peer to peer file sharing is the distribution of digital media through peer to peer network technology. One widely used network technology for file sharing is Google Drive. People could upload any files onto Google Drive and allow specific people to gain access to it. Another example is BitTorrent which is a software that allows the user to download a torrent files. Once the user downloads the torrent file, it connects the user to others who has the file. File sharing networks are convenient in helping others distribute files but most of the time the files shared are illegally obtained. It's hard to enforce the law on illegal file sharing and many people still do it today.

Works Cited

Stelter, B., & Stone, B. (2009, February 4). Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Major Hollywood Studios. Retrieved November 12, 2014.