Get the most out of legal file sharing

File sharing has a bad reputation but it’s actually a very useful technology. We explain its benefits

The terms ‘file sharing’ and ‘peer-to-peer networking’ have some pretty negative connotations.

In the press, they’re more often than not associated with legal wrangles over copyright infringement, but you might be surprised to learn that there’s actually nothing illegal about the peer-to-peer networks themselves and, in principle, nothing unlawful about using them to share files.

It’s certainly true that many users of peer-to-peer networks continue to exploit this technology in order to illegally distribute large amounts of copyrighted material over the internet, but you’ll also find the exact same technology being used for a great number of perfectly legitimate uses, too.

In this feature we’re going to find out precisely what file sharing is, how it works and how it can be put to good use, and explain what’s legal and what’s not.

Caught Napping
At the end of the last millennium an 18-year-old student at Boston’s Northeastern University created a computer program that would eventually turn the music industry on its head and pave the way for music and films to be sold online. The student was Shawn Fanning and the program was called Napster.

At the time, digital music files and players were just beginning to take off. More and more people were converting their CD collections to a collection of MP3 files on their computer.

Fanning’s reason for creating Napster was simple: he wanted to develop a network that would link together every user’s digital music collection so that people could easily share songs, albums and artists’ entire back catalogues with one another free of charge.

Unlike a traditional website making files available for download, Napster didn’t actually store the music files itself ­ the files all remained on their respective owners’ hard disks. Instead, all it did was provide an index, showing who had a copy of each song.

By installing the Napster program, its users allowed others to download the songs they had. At the same time, they could search the service for songs that they wanted, and download them from the other users’ computers.

Share alike
This is the basic principle behind peer-to-peer networking. In simple terms, peer-to-peer networks don’t need to transfer files and other information through a central server. Instead, they create a network of direct connections between individual computers.

And, since the internet is basically a huge number of computers connected together, file-sharing programs are able to make the connections they need to transfer music, video or anything else quickly and easily.

This is a great idea, since it means that no single person or organisation needs to take responsibility for storing the files that users are sharing, and virtually all the power, bandwidth and storage space involved is being supplied by the users themselves.

In Napster’s case, however, this technology had some interesting legal implications. One of the reasons that the service wasn’t shut down straight away was because, while the act of freely distributing copyrighted material like digital music files in itself is undeniably illegal, there was no precedent at the time for deciding the legality of Napster’s involvement in the process.

Since Napster didn’t own, store or distribute the files itself, it was initially hard to implicate it in any crime.

Since digital copies of copyright-protected records were exchanging hands for nothing, however, people in the music industry understandably became extremely worried that the growing practice of file sharing would soon put them out of business.

It wasn’t long before everyone, from the rock group Metallica to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), was on Napster’s back. After a series of high-profile court cases, Napster was forced to close its network in 2001, though it resurfaced in a completely different guise some years later (see ‘New Napster?’ below for details).

Index finger
File sharing and peer-to-peer technology have lived on long after the demise of the original Napster. In order to do so, they have evolved.

As Napster kept an index of the music on its service, it was relatively easy for the courts to shut it down: by simply ordering the company to shut off its servers, Napster could be stopped in one fell swoop.

In order to avoid this, the next generation of networks, such as Gnutella, Limewire and Kazaa, did away with the centralised index altogether.

With the networks harder to shut down, and no one company to focus their efforts on, groups representing the music industry turned their attention to the people who used these networks.

In the US, several members of the public found themselves being sued. In 2004, the RIAA is estimated to have filed more than 13,000 civil suits against individual music downloaders and uploaders in the US, including college students, single mothers and trainee nurses.

Here in the UK, the British Phonographic Industry appears to have, thus far, targeted only organised music piracy and so-called ‘serial uploaders’ who make thousands of music files available over the internet. Most famously, an unnamed postman and father-of-two from Sussex was ordered to pay a fine of £1,500 by a court in 2006.

Newer, more sophisticated file-sharing technologies have since come into wider usage, the most well known of which is Bittorrent. First developed in 2001, Bittorrent makes it possible to share large files without putting all the strain on the owner of the original copy.

Where Bittorrent differs from previous techniques is that it splits each file into pieces. Rather than downloading the whole file from one location, the program downloads these pieces from as many different computers as possible, and once pieces have been downloaded to its disk these are also shared with other users. As more and more people download the file, it becomes quicker for others to follow them.

Download dangers
One of the obvious drawbacks of peer-to-peer downloading is the issue of security. When downloading files from a file-sharing network, you are effectively downloading them from other users, who make no guarantee as to what those files may contain.

It is quite common for downloaded files to include viruses, Trojans and other unpleasant surprises hidden in an otherwise innocuous-looking file. What’s more, there’s no guarantee that the files you download will contain the music, video or file that you expected.

Equally, the fact that peer-to-peer programs provide other users with access to the contents of your hard disk can potentially leave your PC open to abuse. This is rarer, but in September last year the first person to have allegedly used file-sharing software to commit identity theft was arrested in Seattle, USA.

Gregory Thomas Kopiloff was indicted for allegedly copying personal records that were inadvertently shared by peer-to-peer users, then using these details to buy an estimated $73,000 worth of goods, which he then sold.

Despite these security risks, and the threat of possible legal action, many people continue to use
file-sharing networks to unlawfully distribute and download copyrighted music, movies and software.

Indeed, systems like the Bittorrent model make it even easier to share larger files, such as entire DVD-quality movies or disc images of illegally copied computer and video games, and the increase in these areas of piracy has seen a corresponding rise in action taken by relevant bodies in both industries.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), for instance, has gone as far as to provide American universities with software to track and report on student file-sharing activity on campus networks, raising some interesting questions about online privacy in the process.

Legal ease
While illegal file sharing continues to be popular, large companies have begun to recognise its potential as a legitimate way to distribute digital files.

After all, the benefits of file-sharing technology are massive when compared to the traditional ways to distribute films, music and software.

For a start, digital downloads are much more cost-effective, since they incur little or no manufacturing costs compared to creating CDs or DVDs, and there’s no need to pay for shipping and physical distribution.

File-sharing also opens up the potential for direct sales, allowing music, film and games companies to sell straight to customers via their own websites, cutting out middlemen and reclaiming even more of the profits.

On top of that, using peer-to-peer technology makes distributing even large files simple. This means manufacturers don’t have to pay as much for server computers, storage and bandwidth, as these resources are effectively shared between people using the service.

And it’s not just company fat cats who benefit from these schemes. Legal file sharing can provide users with cheaper music, movies and games, and the opportunity to buy and download these products whenever or wherever they want.

A number of companies have already jumped on the file-sharing bandwagon and more are certain to follow.

Bittorrent has recently announced partnerships with a number of high-profile companies, including Warner Bros, Paramount and Twentieth Century Fox. This means that a selection of films, TV shows, games, albums and pop videos are available to download legally via Bittorrent’s website.

While a small selection of what’s on offer is free, most of the items cost money. Currently Bittorrent’s legal downloads are largely limited to American customers, but it is interesting to note that prices are often significantly cheaper than shop-bought equivalents.

Other similar uses of peer-to-peer technology include Joost, a kind of file-sharing TV station that offers more than 20,000 programmes. Some of the shows on Joost originate from reasonably big industry names such as Alliance Atlantis and Adult Swim.

An even better example is the BBC’s iPlayer. This allows users to watch BBC programmes that were broadcast recently, and in order to make the downloads as fast as possible it uses peer-to-peer downloading.

It makes use of your internet connection to both download and share programmes, even when you’re not actually using the iPlayer application. It is possible to turn off this feature by removing a tick from the box labelled ‘Allow programmes to be shared when you exit Download Manager’ in the iPlayer settings window. See our Workshop to find out how to use the iPlayer.

Free and easy
Ironically, the legitimisation of peer-to-peer technology seems to have resulted in a new set of potential legal problems.

Some internet service providers are reported to be unhappy about the BBC’s iPlayer peer-to-peer service, claiming that it forces them to shoulder some of the burden involved in transmitting the programmes, and that such a system could possibly result in congestion that slows up the UK’s broadband networks.

Despite this, the iPlayer remains a compelling example of how file-sharing technology can be simple, legal and useful. And it’s not just the world of TV and music where peer-to-peer systems can be beneficial.

Skype’s internet telephony system uses the technology to allow users to call one another free of charge.
Elsewhere, open-source software developers also commonly use file-sharing netw orks to distribute large files, such as entire Linux operating systems. Peer-to-peer technology is even said to have massive potential for academic, business and military users.

All of this serves to prove that file sharing has grown beyond its questionable origins. That said, a lot of unlawful file sharing still goes on. Our advice is to follow these precautions: download from trusted sources, never make your own music or movie files available for others to download illegally and take all the usual security measures, such as running anti-virus and firewall software.

New Napster?
Go to Napster's website today and you’ll still find a music download service but, aside from its name, the current incarnation of Napster has very little in common with the infamous original.

Napster was forced to liquidate its assets after it was shut down by the courts in 2002 and the Napster name was later acquired by Roxio. Relaunched in late 2003, the Napster that you’ll find today is a completely legal music store similar to the Apple iTunes Store.

Napster offers three types of service; a standard pay-per-download system where each song costs 79p, a subscription service that gives access to its entire library for £9.95 each month, and a ‘Napster to Go’ service that also enables users to copy tracks to a portable music player.

None of these services uses peer-to-peer technology in any way, as songs are downloaded directly from the company’s own servers.

Setting up a router for Bittorrent
Bittorrent can be very useful for downloading some legal but large files but in order to use it effectively, it may be necessary to make some adjustments. You may need to customise the Bittorrent client’s advanced options, change firewall settings or open certain ports on your router.

If your router and firewall are both compatible with Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), then speed problems can be fixed easily. In the Bittorrent software click View, then Settings. Click the Network tab, and put a tick in the box next to ‘Enable automatic port mapping (UPnP)’. Note that it may also be necessary to enable UPnP on your firewall and router ­ check the manuals for information on how to do this.

If your router doesn’t support UPnP then it may be necessary to open some ports manually. Fortunately, instructions on how to do this with a number of routers can be found online at Port Forward.

To go directly to the most helpful page, simply type http://tinyurl.com/ab552 into your web browser’s address bar and press enter. When this page loads, find the model number of your own router and click on it. In the page that appears, scroll down to where it says ‘BitTorrent’ and click the link. The resulting page will give you step-by-step instructions ­ follow these carefully.