Internet file sharing has been a sticky issue that began when Napster had a service for downloading music in the late 1990′s. Although the courts closed Napster, many other services have cropped up since then. Some of these are legal sites where participants pay royalties to download the files, and in turn, the hosts pay fees to the relevant person or organization. File sharing on the internet is often done through peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Users install software that allows one computer to search for files on another one. Large files may be broken down and placed on various computers to keep from tying up one computer and to make the total files easier to download without errors. The many pieces are reassembled by the downloader to make the one large file. Gnutella is one of the more popular P2P networks. While users are online, others can get files from their computers while they themselves are downloading files from still other users. All kinds of files are shared this way, and though movies and music are the two primary attractions, any kind of file can be shared, including dvd duplication software. File hosting services are the alternative to PSP networks. Often these are linked to and from forums, blogs, or emails. In this instance, a larger server or group of servers contain the files that people want to download. These files can be fee based or free grabbers that entice the downloader to buy into something that does cost money. Many internet users believe anything that is available to be copied from the internet is free to everyone. This, of course, is not true. Pictures, movies, and music are all owned by someone, and only those items listed in the public domain are free. Another way of looking at the situation is that if something doesn’t cost anything it is worth downloading; however, if it isn’t free, it’s not worth buying. This argument is given to uphold the notion that the person who downloads only does so because it is available, and wouldn’t be interested if there were a fee attached. The attempted point to be made from this theory is that commerce is not affected by the downloading of music and movies because the people who will spend money for the media will do so anyway. There might be some thread of truth to this idea, but no research can point to its relevance. The debate will go on, but file sharing is not going to go away. At some point in the future, it may become the primary way entertainment is distributed.
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