Peer To Peer Why not this be banned ??

[longtimeago 0]

I wonder how this so called peer2peer softwares exists till now , and how the cyber laws of the United states still permit the same , the whole is aware that all the softwares which are transffered via peer2peer is gonna be illegal and no legal softwares are transffered . may be in some cases there are some , on the other hand there is a high probablity of vruses to be transffered via p2p , leave alone viruses , my only doubt is , how come the Laws permit Softwares to be transffered ( against the policy ) thorugh some p2p clients legally ??Results of p2p :Advantages :-You get anything and everythingDisadvantage :- Illegal distriobution of softwares which may hinder the tech. growth in near future.- Spreading of viruses ( however this may be controlled using some scanners on the recieving side )

[galexcd 0]

There is nothing illegal about peer-to-peer itself. It is just a technology to allow data to travel from one computer to another using a specific port. I don't see why you think there would be anything illegal about it, unless you use it for illegal purposes, such as transferring copyrighted information. And in those cases, yes, there are plenty of laws prohibiting the transfer of copyrighted materials without the explicit permission from the copyright holder. The problem is that there really is very difficult to enforce laws like these, especially when the peer to peer server lives in a different country with different copyright laws.

[aloKNsh 0]

Sorry to tell but P2p is not illegal in Canada. The government of Canada has made a shield to protect its users from the piracy, and also provides torrents for free but its also sad because it is offered only in Canada. P2P cannot be banned because p2p's main purpose is to share files like an sharing website. Its our interest that we use p2p as an illegal downloading source.

[rvalkass 5]

the whole is aware that all the softwares which are transffered via peer2peer is gonna be illegal and no legal softwares are transffered .

What?! I use BitTorrent to download Linux distributions. They are both free as in "zero cost" and free as in "freedom". I download them with peer-to-peer software to reduce load on the servers of the distributions, by spreading the transfer across hundreds of PCs around the world.

on the other hand there is a high probablity of vruses to be transffered via p2p

I have been using it for years and never received a virus. This is because I download legal stuff, and use Linux. If you're on a Windows PC doing anything without extensive virus protection then your computer won't be useful for very long. If you stick to legal and official downloads then there are no risks of viruses.

how come the Laws permit Softwares to be transffered ( against the policy ) thorugh some p2p clients legally ??

There is nothing illegal about peer-to-peer software, or transferring things via peer-to-peer unless what you are transferring is illegal. Transferring illegal content is already covered by laws in most countries. The actual peer-to-peer technology is used for legal purposes, so you can't make it illegal. That would be like making driving illegal because some people regularly break the law by exceeding the speed limit.

[longtimeago 0]

but is there any means ( technology ) to check whether the file which is being transferred in a p2p is legal or copyrighted , i am sure there is not technology for the same , if this is the case then i guess the Bittorrent ( or any such client ) must establish a centralized server before establshing the p2p connection , in the server they have to check and do someething about the file which is going to be trasffered , some key exchange or something , thus making p2p only for legitimate files , then p2p will be rocking i guess , Lets innovate such a technology

[Baniboy 3]

The whole idea of p2p is computer-computer, it wouldn't make sence to squeeze them through a check or anything, it would decrease the download speed and it would just make sence, it would be the same as I would be downloading from a server. Anyway, such "technology" would be impossible, let's think I make a torrent. How am I forced to make the torrent go through a legality check?. Even if it would be a client-side check, I could easily go around it, if it was the torrent client that makes the check then people would just download and install a client that doesn't have that check. Piracy is here to stay, I personally don't like it, I use freeware and that's all I need.

[xpress 0]

but is there any means ( technology ) to check whether the file which is being transferred in a p2p is legal or copyrighted , i am sure there is not technology for the same , if this is the case then i guess the Bittorrent ( or any such client ) must establish a centralized server before establshing the p2p connection , in the server they have to check and do someething about the file which is going to be trasffered , some key exchange or something , thus making p2p only for legitimate files , then p2p will be rocking i guess , Lets innovate such a technology

Thats very very diffucult to implement. Even though if it is implemented, it comes at the cost of performance. Imagine the load on all the servers in the world to scan millions of computers traffic every second to find out some thing is legal or not. It defeats the purpose of p2p technology. And of course, people are very intelligent. If there is a program that checks all downloads to find out its legal or illegal, then people will compress them to some password protected zip file or rar file which can easily pass in the legality checking.

And the main motive in P2P is direct communication between two computers(of course, through some network and third party program). Do you really like it when some one is scanning all the communication between you and me? I think you don't.

[buxgoddess 1]

The debate as to how to prevent the transfer of illegal material to be shared through a peer to peer network is an ongoing process and there seems to be no answer as yet. The system as such is a good one and there are no problem with the system, but when it comes to transferring something you cannot stop someone without knowing what is being transmitted. And the answer to what is being transmitted is only possible to be identified when the data is observed and read in between the transmission. The obvious problem of privacy comes into account and thereby raising issues as to how to observe what is being transmitted. Resulting in the same age old deadlock session, and no solution. We are at our own wit can say that most of the data that goes through the p2p network are pirated or illegal material but there cannot be a rule without identifying what is being transmitted. Hence the use of p2p network for illegal activity goes on and will continue until there are some major change as to how data is generated and transmitted over the Internet.

[triplebtalk 0]

Peer to Peer itself is a completely legal software which can be very useful in terms of distributing your own material, this would usually cost a large amount of money, now all you need is a internet connection. The US could not just ban some software because it CAN be used for pirating software, movies, music and other interesting stuff... Really it is just like saying "Why don't we ban email" advantages: you can get immediate responses. Disadvantages: people can scam you if you are stupid enough. I say go-figure, if everything that could be used for illegal purposes we would all live in boxes, or not because they can be used to smuggle cocaine in...

[bluedragon 0]

@nirmaldaniel - I dont think it should/can be banned. AND you cannot say that everything on P2P is illegal just because you find some viruses or illegal material on it. And May be you should study the architecture itself before commenting on P2P. It was originally designed as an FILE SHARING kind of thing where the only difference was that users were able to connect and see what others are sharing.going by your definition, If you decide to share some of YOUR OWN copyright photos with some of your friends is Illegal ?and may be you should be banned from the internet with all your internet rights removed and may be some strict penalties ?since you were engaging in a P2P sharing act

[iXeta 0]

@nirmaldaniel - For your idea that P2P will hinder technological advancement, I have just this one example to show you how peer to peer is helping us right now. This is not the perfect P2P network, as it does have a central network of computers that eventually have to receive the data, but here goes.Stanford University in California started a project between its College of Computer Science and its Biology department to work on using a supercomputer to 'fold' protein cells. The folded protein cells could provide information on helping to cure types of cancer. The problem was there are so many hundreds of thousands of cells to fold, it would take one supercomputer thousands of years to complete. So the Computer Science division of Stanford came up with the idea of using a sort of P2P network to do a spread load project between thousands of volunteers that would download information on a Protein cell, and then have their computer virtually 'fold' it, then send it back for study.This is a very simple form of P2P, but its done a world of good and HAS helped find very worthwhile results.

[rayzoredge 2]

Peer-to-peer is a method and not a software. Peer to peer software utilizing the peer-to-peer method is not illegal in that sense. However, utilizing peer-to-peer software to obtain or share pirated copyright material is illegal. Therefore, it is not the software or means that are illegal; it solely becomes the responsibility of the user of the software to not utilize the software in an illegal way.

The way that peer-to-peer works is beneficial in a lot of ways, and it has many legal applications outside of the piracy that we often relate the term with. I believe that World of Warcraft patches utilize peer-to-peer methodology... it would make sense to me that Blizzard allows the users to disseminate patch files as opposed to having 11+ million users assaulting Blizzard's servers to download the same patch files they all need. (If I'm wrong on this, please correct me. I don't have any actual proof that this is how WoW distributes patches, but it makes sense that they do.)

As rvalkass has pointed out too, people download Linux distributions too using peer-to-peer methodology. It makes sense to be utilizing P2P to download from the swarm of Linux users online instead of, again, assaulting servers to download the same ISOs. Why not use everyone else's resources and reduce strain on your own, especially if you don't have the resources to support a ton of servers to service the online community by yourself?

With those statements, it's a wonder why peer-to-peer should be viewed under a bad light, concerning the benefits that it can provide the online community. It's the fact that P2P is usually associated with piracy, however, that can give people like you a skewed look on what it really is. (It's not your fault; however, it helps to keep an open mind about things.)

I found an excellent article the other day written by the guy who does TweakGuides, and he makes some excellent points. I invite anyone interested in piracy to read the article, as it explains the magnitude of the issue, who it hurts, and what it does in the long run, as opposed to the popular gossip that a lot of us accept as true.

Addendum: I forgot to include that your advantage and disadvantage is rather incorrect. You can't get anything you want from peer-to-peer sharing, because in order for it to be available, someone has to have it, and someone has to want it. That's how it works. The more peers that have the complete contents of a file or torrent, the "healthier" the existence of that content is, down to the point where no one offers the file anymore, thus killing your bullet saying that you can get everything from peer-to-peer sharing.

You are right on your first bullet for disadvantages (to an extent), but the second is part of the whole concept. If people are infected with malware and they attempt to share their files, of course you are going to be sharing that malware (assuming it's infected). Viruses, Trojans, and other malware have been in existence and are unintentionally or intentionally spread with other methods of data transfer too... it's not just limited to peer-to-peer methodology. Some people are jerks and infect their shared content to discourage the sharing of illegal content or intentionally cripple the content that is being shared, and some people are completely oblivious to the fact that they may have been sharing from a machine that has been compromised.

Edited March 24, 2009 by rayzoredge (see edit history)