P2P

P2P & filesharing
a parents guide

‘copyrighted music has been shared...’ what to do if you get sent a letter

It has been a long wet summer and the chances are that your kids will have spent a considerable amount of time online. ISPs are in the process of sending out letters to customers who have been identified as sharing files online. To put things in context there are around 12 million households and they are sending out around 6,000 letters... so don’t worry too much.

Filesharing is NOT illegal

However sharing copyrighted material is. The Internet allows people to share files (often music and films) not just with their friends but with an almost unlimited number of other people - anonymously. It is this large scale sharing that has attracted the attention of the copyright owners and those that represent them.

Understandably they would prefer people not to “steal” their valuable material but they face a problem in identifying who is doing it. They have various ways to track what is happening online, usually by planting files (names to look like something popular) which people download and they then track. They can “see” where the file goes - a bit like tracing it. The trouble is that instead of getting a name or an address all they can find out is an IP address. This is the unique number that is given to your Internet connection by your ISP. So now they need your ISP to tell them who is using the offending IP addresses. Unsurprisingly, ISPs are keen to keep their hard earned customers and to date have been unwilling to just to hand over their customers details. They have now agreed to write to them on behalf of the BPI, in an attempt to stop the worst offenders.

At the moment this is ALL that has been agreed, so the likelihood of any further action is remote. That is not to say someone in your home is not sharing large amounts of copyrighted material.

Visit Childnet International's

Filesharing - how does it work?

Filesharing (sometimes called Peer-to-Peer, P2P) technology has evolved as a very efficient way to distribute large files over the Internet. Typically if you wanted people to download your file you would put it on a server at the end of a single Internet connection. The problem was that with only 1 file and 1 connection, not many people could get it or it became very expensive to buy a big enough Internet connection to let more people get access.

Enter filesharing... using some clever software that you download - when you upload your file, as it becomes more popular, each person that downloads it shares a little piece of it. The master “map” that tells the software where each piece is located and is updated regularly - each piece is available form a growing number of places. The filesharing network maintains the central list of “maps” allowing users to search for particular files and then download the “map” which in turn allows them to locate all the pieces of the file, the software then downloads all of the pieces and puts them back together, providing the original file.

Filesharing - what to look out for

There are two components to filesharing - the maps and the client software. Sometimes they are the same thing, sometimes not. With names like eMule, Limewire, BearShare, Vuze, Kazaa, and Morpheus they are often more recognizable by their icons. If you have any of these on your computer the chances are someone is sharing files.

A more complete list can be found at Wikipedia

Filesharing - so what?

P2P networks operate in a grey legal area, and while not necessarily illegal themselves they offer a cloak of anonymity for a range of other grey activities (there is for example plenty of porn available via P2P networks), and some of the content would be considered illegal. Adverts on these sites are usually adult in nature (gambling & dating) and needless to say there is no attention given ratings and content suitability.

Aside from tracking data planted by the copyright holders, downloaded files can also contain a unsavoury viruses and trojan programs. Up to date anti-virus protection is essential.

to find our more about filesharing visit Wikipedia or Howstuffworks

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