File sharing - What you need to know!

By: N Hynes

File sharing on p2p is soaring despite the music and movie
industry efforts to curb the practice. Regardless of which side
of the arguement you are on it is likely that sharing of
copyright material will continue in one form or another for the
foreseeable future.

With the advent of p2p file sharing it is possible to download
music, movies, movie trailers, MP3's, TV shows, software, games
and ringtones all for free. All that is required is a fast
internet connection and some P2P software. A peer to peer
computer network is a network used for sharing content like
audio, video, data or anything in digital format. The best known
example of p2p file sharing application was Napster. Napster was
shutdown following a lawsuit with the music industry.

Today, Napster has been replaced by a new type of application
which required no central server and allows the anonymous
sharing of files. The most common peer to peer networks today
are Kazaa, Grokster, eMule and Morpheus.

Be warned however that much of the content on p2p networks is
copyright material and therefore downloading or sharing this
material can violate copyright laws especially in light of the
recent US Supreme Court rules against file-sharing services.
There is also the risk of downloading viruses and spyware as
these file-sharing networks are not secure. Spyware and adware
programs are frequently bundled into P2P file sharing software.
Downloaded material could also contain pornography. More file sharing
info

About the author:
(c) Noel Hynes, 2005. Reprint rights granted to copy and publish
this article so long as the article and by-line are reprinted
intact. File
sharing Information