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The Networker
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If you want to see the future, it's time to consult your peers
John Naughton
Sunday October 10, 2004
The Observer
The news that the quaintly named British Phonographic Society is planning to sue some individuals who engage in the swapping of music files provided acres of clueless coverage in the mainstream media. But it seems the BPS has learnt something from the experiences of its US counterpart, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which sued a 12-year-old girl and paid the price in a public-relations disaster of epic proportions.
The BPS is targeting 28 individuals in the UK, each of whom is allegedly sharing music files on a massive scale. The society does not know who these individuals are - only the internet addresses of their computers, so there is an interesting legal hurdle to be jumped before their ISPs divulge their real identities.
The RIAA claims its campaign of legal intimidation is working. It points to a survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which found that US internet users had become more cautious about illicitly downloading music files. The strange thing about this is it runs counter to the fact that every other indicator suggests file-sharing is on an explosive growth path. And, of course, the decision by the music and movie industries to sue Morpheus and Grokster - two of the better-known file-sharing services - suggests they know this too.
In the event, the content industries lost the case. The US appeal court rejected the argument that the file-sharing services could be held responsible for illegal behaviour by their users. 'History has shown,' says the judgment, 'that time and market forces often provide equilibrium in balancing interests, whether the new technology be a player piano, a copier, a tape recorder, a video recorder, a personal computer, a karaoke machine or an MP3 player. Thus, it is prudent for courts to exercise caution before restructuring liability theories for the purpose of addressing specific market abuses, despite their apparent present magnitude.'
Amen. Most file-sharing is done via what is called peer-to-peer (P2P) networking. Until recently, reliable data about the prevalence of P2P were hard to get, because the monitoring tools used by most ISPs were not sophisticated enough. Even so, these crude instruments suggested that P2P traffic accounted for a significant proportion of internet traffic.
But a UK start-up called CacheLogic has come up with technology that enables ISPs to get a detailed analysis of network traffic. Over the last six months, CacheLogic has used this technology in collaboration with a range of big ISPs, and from this has derived what it claims is the first detailed empirical analysis of contemporary net traffic.
The findings are fascinating. They suggest that P2P is now the largest single generator of traffic; that it significantly outweighs web traffic; and that it continues to grow. P2P traffic volumes are at least double those of web traffic during the peak evening periods and 10 times greater at other times.
The significance of this is not that the efforts of content industries to plug the dyke are doomed (though they are), but that when people look back on the evolution of the net, P2P will be seen as the biggest innovation since the web's invention in 1990.
It may come as news to the BPS and RIAA, but the sharing of music files is the least significant application of P2P. For example, Skype - the sensational internet telephony software that enables anyone with a broadband connection to make freephone calls to anyone else similarly equipped - is a P2P application. So is instant messaging, which is spreading like wildfire. So is LionShare - a project started by Penn State University to create a series of networks for sharing scholarly information among academics. And BitTorrent - the best system yet devised for distributing large files (for example new releases of operating systems) - is likewise P2P.
P2P networking technology is taking over the net for one simple and compelling reason: it makes abundant sense. There are millions of PCs connected to the net. Most of the time they are doing nothing. But they represent a massive, untapped reserve of computing power and storage resources.
P2P is a way of harnessing these resources. Of course, like every other technology from the medical syringe to the camcorder and the automobile, it has unsavoury uses. But those abuses do not provide a justification for a few threatened industries to squash the technology.
There are more important things in life than the bonuses of record company executives. P2P is the future; they belong to the past.
· [email protected]
www.briefhistory.com/footnotes
The Networker
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to see the future, it's time to consult your peers
John Naughton
Sunday October 10, 2004
The Observer
The news that the quaintly named British Phonographic Society is planning to sue some individuals who engage in the swapping of music files provided acres of clueless coverage in the mainstream media. But it seems the BPS has learnt something from the experiences of its US counterpart, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which sued a 12-year-old girl and paid the price in a public-relations disaster of epic proportions.
The BPS is targeting 28 individuals in the UK, each of whom is allegedly sharing music files on a massive scale. The society does not know who these individuals are - only the internet addresses of their computers, so there is an interesting legal hurdle to be jumped before their ISPs divulge their real identities.
The RIAA claims its campaign of legal intimidation is working. It points to a survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which found that US internet users had become more cautious about illicitly downloading music files. The strange thing about this is it runs counter to the fact that every other indicator suggests file-sharing is on an explosive growth path. And, of course, the decision by the music and movie industries to sue Morpheus and Grokster - two of the better-known file-sharing services - suggests they know this too.
In the event, the content industries lost the case. The US appeal court rejected the argument that the file-sharing services could be held responsible for illegal behaviour by their users. 'History has shown,' says the judgment, 'that time and market forces often provide equilibrium in balancing interests, whether the new technology be a player piano, a copier, a tape recorder, a video recorder, a personal computer, a karaoke machine or an MP3 player. Thus, it is prudent for courts to exercise caution before restructuring liability theories for the purpose of addressing specific market abuses, despite their apparent present magnitude.'
Amen. Most file-sharing is done via what is called peer-to-peer (P2P) networking. Until recently, reliable data about the prevalence of P2P were hard to get, because the monitoring tools used by most ISPs were not sophisticated enough. Even so, these crude instruments suggested that P2P traffic accounted for a significant proportion of internet traffic.
But a UK start-up called CacheLogic has come up with technology that enables ISPs to get a detailed analysis of network traffic. Over the last six months, CacheLogic has used this technology in collaboration with a range of big ISPs, and from this has derived what it claims is the first detailed empirical analysis of contemporary net traffic.
The findings are fascinating. They suggest that P2P is now the largest single generator of traffic; that it significantly outweighs web traffic; and that it continues to grow. P2P traffic volumes are at least double those of web traffic during the peak evening periods and 10 times greater at other times.
The significance of this is not that the efforts of content industries to plug the dyke are doomed (though they are), but that when people look back on the evolution of the net, P2P will be seen as the biggest innovation since the web's invention in 1990.
It may come as news to the BPS and RIAA, but the sharing of music files is the least significant application of P2P. For example, Skype - the sensational internet telephony software that enables anyone with a broadband connection to make freephone calls to anyone else similarly equipped - is a P2P application. So is instant messaging, which is spreading like wildfire. So is LionShare - a project started by Penn State University to create a series of networks for sharing scholarly information among academics. And BitTorrent - the best system yet devised for distributing large files (for example new releases of operating systems) - is likewise P2P.
P2P networking technology is taking over the net for one simple and compelling reason: it makes abundant sense. There are millions of PCs connected to the net. Most of the time they are doing nothing. But they represent a massive, untapped reserve of computing power and storage resources.
P2P is a way of harnessing these resources. Of course, like every other technology from the medical syringe to the camcorder and the automobile, it has unsavoury uses. But those abuses do not provide a justification for a few threatened industries to squash the technology.
There are more important things in life than the bonuses of record company executives. P2P is the future; they belong to the past.
· [email protected]
www.briefhistory.com/footnotes