P2P File Sharing

File sharing is simply the sharing of digital files.

P2P sharing is peer-to-peer sharing.  This is essentially a derivative version of file sharing, in which anonymous users help out anonymous users acquire whatever files they want or need.

From what I remember, P2P sharing started with Napster, then Napster got shut down and everyone moved to Kazaa.  At some point, Kazaa lost its cool and people switched to Limewire.  Eventually, people discovered torrents, and to this day, torrents are the most popular medium for P2P sharing.

Currently, it seems as though File sharing or P2P sharing is a euphemism for piracy.  This is a topic of its own, really.  But in Pfanner's article "Should Online Scofflaws Be Denied Web Access," there is a quote that I disagree with on the bottom.
Tim Kuik, director of Brein, a Dutch antipiracy organization, says:

"If you put 200 VCRs in your garage and start making and selling copies of films, you will get a visit from the police.  If you do it from a Web site, everybody says, ‘Hey, freedom of information’ ”.


Piracy is convenient.  It is virtually free and requires less effort than actually making a purchase.  P2P software and piracy cannot be comfortably compared with real-life piracy.

First of all, I have yet to see pirates sell copies of content they have downloaded.  Unless you're on Canal St., profit isn't the intent of pirating.
Second, online piracy is definitely enforceable.  I personally know people that got visits from the law for downloading copyrighted media.  The reason it isn't often enforced is that file sharing is still a grey area - it is not the same as stealing and copying in real life.  Also, with encryption of data and VPNs and such, tangible data is much harder to acquire and trails are harder to trace.