File Sharing

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File sharing is the ability to transmit or “share” files from one computer to another over the Internet.
A simple diagram to demonstrate the core definition of filesharing.
Such files may include computer programs, music, videos, images, documents, or books. One type of file sharing is peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P). In P2P file sharing, people can use software to search for shared files on the computers of other users and download their chosen files directly from other people on the network. P2P allows users to download music and movies. Another type of file sharing is an alternative to peer-to-peer software and is called file hosting service. These services are offered by sites that host files and allow users to download them directly through links. An example of a current file hosting service is MediaFire. This site is most commonly known for the users ability to search for song titles and download them from the links the site provides.

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History

The history of file sharing dates back to 1971 when the 8 inch floppy diskette invented by IBM. [1] It rapidly won its acceptance as a useful data storage medium. Floppy disks allowed users to transfer files from one drive to another drive. In 1990, the World Wide Web (WWW) was officially proposed. The WWW provided users with easy access to file sharing. Within the next year, the MP3 standard is introduced.[2] This was the turning point which ultimately lead to Digital Piracy. The first MP3 player was released in 1997 and it was called the MPMan F10. A year later the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was passed and was used as a weapon of piracy destruction and was greatly used in many legal actions against file sharing services[3]. In 1999 Shawn Fanning created Napster. Napster is an online music sharing software. A user could selectively download specific songs from users that had purchased CD’s and made them available to other users on Napster. Users were sharing each others music. This institutes deliberate copyright infringement and this brings about the legality of file sharing which is discussed below. Just two years after Napster was created, the music industry organized a copyright infringement suit against them. Napster was immediately shut down in 2001. That same year, BitTorrent and LimeWire were released. BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer communications protocol for file sharing. The most famous site is The Pirate Bay (TPB) which was released in 2003. TPB allows users to share electronic files. As of 2011, it has over 5 million registered users and hosts more than 3.5 million torrent files.[4] LimeWire is a free peer-to-peer file sharing software program. In 2010, LimeWire was forced shut down by recording companies, but the network still remains available in open source clients like Frostwire. In March of 2011, thirteen recording companies are attempting to sue LimeWire for $75 trillion. [5] It's clearly been a trend throughout the history of file sharing that legal matters arise and are attempted to be combated, but file sharing continues to be rampant in today's technological world.

Legality of File Sharing

File sharing is not necessarily illegal, but there's an active legal debate surrounding file sharing that has caused many lawsuits. Although, there are many artists that support open source file sharing and see it as a way to cheaply promote their music. Also, it's important to realize that file hosting services do not actively monitor the content being transferred by users. So, although the site itself is legal, the files (or music) being uploaded on the site may not be.


Ethics of File Sharing

There is an estimated 700 million copyright-infringed music files on the Internet. [will expand later]

File Hosting

Mediafire Megaupload Sendspace Rapidshare

Torrent Sites

Site comparison

The following table compares the features of various BitTorrent sites. It is by no means exhaustive. Alexa ranking is accurate as of 5 October 2010.

Site Specialization Is a tracker Directory Public RSS One-click download Sortable Comments Multi-tracker index Alexa Traffic Rank
Template:Rh | 1337x Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[6]
Template:Rh | AnimeSuki Anime & otaku subculture[7] Template:No Template:Yes[8] Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Only new torrents Template:No Template:No Template:Sort[9]
Template:Rh | Anirena Anime & otaku subculture Template:Yes[10] Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[11]
Template:Rh | BakaBT Anime & otaku subculture Template:Yes Template:Yes Semi Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[12]
Template:Rh | Bangla Torrents Bengali language content Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[13]
Template:Rh | BiteNova Template:No Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[14]
Template:Rh | BitLite Multimedia streaming Online Client Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[15]
Template:Rh | BitSoup Template:No Template:Yes  ? Semi  ? Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes  ? Template:Sort[16]
Template:Rh | BitTorrent Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:No Template:No Template:Sort[17]
Template:Rh | BitToxic[18][19] Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes[20] Semi Template:Yes[21] Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[22]
Template:Rh | BTDigg DHT search[23] Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:Sort[24]
Template:Rh | BTJunkie Template:No Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[25]
Template:Rh | BTMon Template:No Template:No Template:Yes[26] Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[27]
Template:Rh | BTScene Metasearch  ?  ? Template:Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Template:Sort[28]
Template:Rh | Bush Torrent Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:No Template:Sort[29]
Template:Rh | CinemaTorrents Film[30] Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[31]
Template:Rh | ClearBits Legally redistributable media Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[32]
Template:Rh | Demonoid Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Semi Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[33]
Template:Rh | eBookVortex eBooks Template:Yes Template:Yes semi Template:Yes  ? Template:Yes Template:Yes  ? 501,929
Template:Rh | Entertane Metasearch  ?  ? Template:Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Template:Sort[34]
Template:Rh | etree Live Concerts Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[35]
Template:Rh | Extratorrent Template:No  ?  ? Template:Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Template:Sort[36]
Template:Rh | Fenopy Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[37]
Template:Rh | FlixFlux Film[38] Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[39]
Template:Rh | Fulldls Template:No Template:No Template:Yes[40] Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[41]
Template:Rh | Gamestorrents Games  ?  ? Template:Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Template:Sort[42]
Template:Rh | Go-Torrent Template:No  ? Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[43]
Template:Rh | h33t Template:No Template:Yes  ? Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[44]
Template:Rh | iBiblio Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:No Template:No Template:No Template:Sort[45]
Template:Rh | Immortalseed Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[46]
Template:Rh | TorMovies - Internet Movie Torrent Database Film Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:No Template:Yes Template:Sort
Template:Rh | IPTorrents Template:No Template:Yes  ? Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes  ? Template:Sort[47]
Template:Rh | isoHunt Template:No, (Legally redistributable media within U.S.)[48][49] Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes[50] Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[51]
Template:Rh | Jishaku Toshokan Anime & otaku subculture Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:Sort[52]
Template:Rh | JPopsuki J-pop Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[53]
Template:Rh | KickassTorrents Template:No Template:No  ? Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[54]
Template:Rh | LegitTorrents Legally redistributable media Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[55]
Template:Rh | LinuxTracker Linux/open software Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[56]
Template:Rh | Megashara Template:No  ?  ? Template:Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Template:Sort[57]
Template:Rh | Mininova Legally redistributable media Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes[58] Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[59]
Template:Rh | Monova Template:No  ?  ? Template:Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Template:Sort[60]
Template:Rh | NewTorrents Template:No, recent releases only Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[61]
Template:Rh | NowTorrents Template:No  ?  ? Template:Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Template:Sort[62]
Template:Rh | NyaaTorrents Anime & otaku subculture Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[63]
Template:Rh | OpenBitTorrent Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:No Template:No Template:No Template:No Template:Sort[64]
Template:Rh | PickTorrent Metasearch No Template:Yes Template:Yes No Template:Yes Template:Yes No Template:Yes Template:Sort[65]
Template:Rh | PlentyofTorrents Metasearch  ?  ? Template:Yes  ?  ? Template:Yes  ?  ? Template:Sort[66]
Template:Rh | PublicBitTorrent Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:No Template:No Template:No Template:No Template:Sort[67]
Template:Rh | Qtorrents Metasearch  ?  ? Template:Yes  ?  ? Template:Yes  ?  ? Template:Sort[68]
Template:Rh | RapidTreggy Template:No  ?  ? Template:No  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Template:Sort[69]
Template:Rh | RARBG Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[70]
Template:Rh | Rutracker.org Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[71]
Template:Rh | ScaryWater Anime & otaku subculture Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:No Template:No Template:Sort[72]
Template:Rh | ScrapeTorrent Template:No Template:No Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:No Template:Sort[73]
Template:Rh | SeedPeer Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[74]
Template:Rh | SmaragdTorrent Template:No Template:No Template:Yes[75] Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[76]
Template:Rh | SumoTorrent Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[77]
Template:Rh | ShareReactor Template:No  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Template:Sort[78]
Template:Rh | The Pirate Bay Template:No Template:No[79] Template:Yes[80] Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Not the top 100 Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[81]
Template:Rh | Tokyo Toshokan Anime & otaku subculture Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:Sort[82]
Template:Rh | Toorgle Template:No  ?  ? Template:Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Template:Sort[83]
Template:Rh | Torrent Crazy Metasearch Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[84]
Template:Rh | Torrent-Finder Other sites Template:No Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:Sort[85]
Template:Rh | Torrentech Electronic music Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[86]
Template:Rh | TorrentFunk Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[87]
Template:Rh | TorrentPond Metasearch Template:No Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:No Template:Sort[88]
Template:Rh | TorrentPortal Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[89]
Template:Rh | TorrentReactor Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes[90] Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[91]
Template:Rh | TorrentReactor.to Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes[92] Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[93]
Template:Rh | TorrentRoot Metasearch  ?  ? Template:Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Template:Sort[94]
Template:Rh | TorrentScan Metasearch  ?  ? Template:Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Template:Sort[95]
Template:Rh | TorrentTree Metasearch  ?  ? Template:Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Template:Sort[96]
Template:Rh | Torrentz Metasearch Template:No Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[97]
Template:Rh | TorrentZap Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes[98] semi Template:Yes[99] Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:No Template:Sort[100]
Template:Rh | uSniff Template:No Template:No Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:No Template:Yes Template:No Template:Yes Template:Sort[101]
Template:Rh | Vertor Extensive filtering  ?  ? Template:Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Template:Sort[102]
Template:Rh | WiTorrent Template:No  ?  ? Template:Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Template:Sort[103]
Template:Rh | yourBittorrent Template:No Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Yes Template:Sort[104]
Template:Rh | Zoozle Template:No  ?  ? Template:Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Template:Sort[105]
Site Specialization Is a tracker Directory Public RSS One click download Sortable Comments Multi-tracker index Alexa Traffic Rank


References

  1. ↑ Computer History Museum. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
  2. ↑ Timeline of file sharing. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
  3. ↑ Nistor, Codrut. File Sharing – History. PCTips3000. 2009-06-34. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
  4. ↑ The Pirate Bay. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
  5. ↑ Plafke, James. LimeWire is Being Sued for Up to $75 Trillion, Judge Thinks It’s “Absurd”. Geekosystem. 2011-05-23. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
  6. ↑ [1] at Alexa
  7. ↑ Anime Suki
  8. ↑ Anime Suki
  9. ↑ Anime Suki at Alexa
  10. ↑ Anirena
  11. ↑ Anirena at Alexa
  12. ↑ Baka BT at Alexa
  13. ↑ Bangla Torrents at Alexa
  14. ↑ Bite Nova at Alexa
  15. ↑ Bit Lite at Alexa
  16. ↑ Bit Soup at Alexa
  17. ↑ Bit Torrent at Alexa
  18. ↑ Wiki BitToxic
  19. ↑ Bit Toxic IRC Information
  20. ↑ Bit Toxic
  21. ↑ Bit Toxic RSS
  22. ↑ Bit Toxic at Alexa
  23. ↑ http://btdigg.org/about.html
  24. ↑ BTDigg at Alexa
  25. ↑ BT Junkie at Alexa
  26. ↑ BT Mon
  27. ↑ BT Mon at Alexa
  28. ↑ BT Scene at Alexa
  29. ↑ Bush Torrent at Alexa
  30. ↑ Cinema Torrents
  31. ↑ Cinema Torrents at Alexa
  32. ↑ Clear Bits at Alexa
  33. ↑ Demonid at Alexa
  34. ↑ Entertane at Alexa
  35. ↑ eTree at Alexa
  36. ↑ Extra Torrent at Alexa
  37. ↑ Fenopy at Alexa
  38. ↑ Flix Flux FAQ
  39. ↑ Flix Flux at Alexa
  40. ↑ Full DLs
  41. ↑ Full DLs at Alexa
  42. ↑ Games Torrents at Alexa
  43. ↑ Go Torrent at Alexa
  44. ↑ h33t at Alexa
  45. ↑ iBiblio at Alexa
  46. ↑ Imomortal Seed at Alexa
  47. ↑ IP Torrents at Alexa
  48. ↑ Kravitz, David · (Mar 2010) · [http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/isohunt/ Isohunt Ordered to Remove Infringing Content] · work · Wired · 11-30-2011
  49. ↑ Yam, Marcus · (Apr 2010) · [http://www.tomshardware.com/news/isohunt-bittorrent- torrent-pirate-bay-mpaa,10053.html Isohunt Ordered to Take Down Illegal Torrents] · work · Toms Hardware · 11-30-2011
  50. ↑ RSS Search Feeds at ISO Hunt
  51. ↑ ISO Hunt at Alexa
  52. ↑ Jishaku Toshokan at Alexa
  53. ↑ JPopsuki at Alexa
  54. ↑ KickassTorrents at Alexa
  55. ↑ Legit Torrents at Alexa
  56. ↑ Linux Tracker at Alexa
  57. ↑ MegaShara at Alexa
  58. ↑ FAQ RSS at MiniNova
  59. ↑ MiniNova at Alexa
  60. ↑ Mo Nova at Alexa
  61. ↑ New Torrents at Alexa
  62. ↑ Now Torrents at Alexa
  63. ↑ Nyaa Torrents at Alexa
  64. ↑ Open Bit Torrent at Alexa
  65. ↑ PickTorrent at Alexa
  66. ↑ Plenty of Torrents at Alexa
  67. ↑ Public BT at Alexa
  68. ↑ qTorrents at Alexa
  69. ↑ Rapid Treggy at Alexa
  70. ↑ Rarbq at Alexa
  71. ↑ RU Tracker at Alexa
  72. ↑ Scary Water at Alexa
  73. ↑ Scrape Torrent at Alexa
  74. ↑ Seed Peer at Alexa
  75. ↑ Smaragd Torrent
  76. ↑ Smaragd Torrent at Alexa
  77. ↑ SumoTorrent at Alexa
  78. ↑ Share Reactor at Alexa
  79. ↑ Pirate Bay Tracker Shuts Down for Good at Torrent Freak
  80. ↑ Pirate Bay
  81. ↑ Pirate Bay at Alexa
  82. ↑ Tokyo Toshokan at Alexa
  83. ↑ Toorgle at Alexa
  84. ↑ Torrent Crazy at Alexa
  85. ↑ Torrent Finder at Alexa
  86. ↑ Torrentech at Alexa
  87. ↑ Torrent Funk at Alexa
  88. ↑ Torrent Pond at Alexa
  89. ↑ Torrent Portal at Alexa
  90. ↑ Torrent Reactor
  91. ↑ Torrent Reactor at Alexa
  92. ↑ Torrent Reactor.to
  93. ↑ Torrent Reactor at Alexa
  94. ↑ Torrent Root at Alexa
  95. ↑ Torrent Scan at Alexa
  96. ↑ Torrent Tree at Alexa
  97. ↑ Torrentz at Alexa
  98. ↑ Yesterday at Torrent Zap
  99. ↑ RSS at Bit Toxic
  100. ↑ Torrent Zap at Alexa
  101. ↑ U Sniff at Alexa
  102. ↑ Vertor at Alexa
  103. ↑ Wi Torrent at Alexa
  104. ↑ Your Bit Torrent at Alexa
  105. ↑ Zoozle at Alexa
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