Archive for the ‘P2P’ Category

If we ever settle the issue of how media can charge for their content rather than giving it away free, we’ll probably still have another growing way in which copyrighted material being bootlegged to end users: Torrents. If you don’t know what a torrent is, this article will bring up to speed.

Until fairly recently, torrents have been more of a “geek thing,” because it takes a little work and setup to get it going. But once you’re set up with it, you can download practically anything from computer games to music to e-books without forking out a dime. The leading torrent tracker, www.thepiratebay.org is feed by a worldwide peer-to-peer network that international authorities have failed to shut down even after throwing the owners in jail.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking torrents are just about music and movies. If you browse around, you’ll find that the “books” section includes hundreds of magazines as well, ranging from Hustler to The Economist. The Economist is especially noteworthy, because it has held the line against giving away its content for free. Is it an accident that every issue shows up in the torrents, which can then be download to Kindles and other handheld devices? If newspapers cease to be free on the Internet, you can bet they’ll show up in torrents in no time.