“Surely We established him in the land and granted him means of access to every thing.” Quran

P2P and torrents and other file sharing methods have sparked a debate about internet service providers (ISPs). Some providers are considering or are policing their bandwidth looking for wrongdoers. Now a bit of information is needed. In the infancy of World Wide Web ISPs fought desperately for the right not to police their networks. The argument was simple at that point. The web was thought of as a network where thought and action would really not be restricted. The ISPs argued that in the same way the phone was unrestricted so should the web be. I can talk to family or I could make a drug deal over the phone. Policing that is close to impossible when you have so much traffic. I know things have changed in philosophy and technology since then but let’s continue. Lawmakers agreed and let it be with some policies coming out against the decision. As I said philosophies have changed. Companies and organizations like the RIAA have put pressure on ISPs to curb illegal downloading. So some ISPs have begun to if not block certain activity then throttle the amount of service used for these activities. The main problem is that as time goes by many of these activities that were once illegal will become legal with the support of artists and companies looking to provide a new services or ways to get their works to the customers. Also, in the same way a phone system is used, how do you decide what is restricted? The thought is that once some restrictions are put in place others based on political or moral bias will follow. There are cases of this with text messaging and website access currently. This debate is not old news. It is being argued now by lawmakers, companies, and the public. If you are a computer user you should be aware of these conflicts no matter what side of the debate you fall on.

That ends our little foray into the greyer side of the web. I hope this has added a bit more knowledge to the discussion.

"Now begins a torrent of words and a trickling of sense." Theocritus

The previous post spoke about P2P file sharing. I would like to focus on another method today. Torrents are the current favorite way of file sharing or transporting. In the previous post I said I do not endorse this method of finding files however it is gaining a certain amount of legal status. One example of this is the band Nine Inch Nails (NIN). They are freely distributing their own music on these torrent sites. I should say the vast majority of the files still remains illegally shared . The reasons torrent are more popular than P2P are the speed and the size. How it works is the user goes to a torrent search site like Piratebay or Mininova and then does a search. As the user goes through and finds a file it will have two bits of information. A seeder count and a leecher count. We’ll come back to that in a bit. The user finds a file and downloads it. Then they need a client or a program that is made just to handle this sort of file. Now the file that is being downloaded is only a tiny fragment of the file called a seed. This seed then gets sent back through the client software and gets sent to others who have another piece of the seeding puzzle. This system relies on many users who remain online to share their piece of the file. This means what is being downloaded is just small and fast bits of data from many different users. Unfortunately, for this system, some users stop sharing the moment they get a file and then stop it. These people are generally called leechers while sharers are called seeders. The system works very well for moving large files through the net. Many movie companies are looking very closely at this method in hopes of using it as a legal movie downloading service. The future of renting a movie may just be using something like this for a small fee.

“Happiness seems made to be shared.” Pierre Corneille

Whenever there is a news story about file sharing online I get a bunch of questions asking what they are talking about. I would like to, at least for the next few posts, talk about some of what they are referring to.

To begin, as I have said in earlier posts, not all sharing of files is illegal. In fact the vast majority is legal. As an example I create worksheets that are freely shared with my consent all over the net. I do the same with photos and videos as well. However some ways of moving files on the internet have become known as places of mainly illegal files or at least ones that fall into the grey areas. Peer to Peer (P2P) is one way. At this point I should mention this is still used but it is not as popular as it once was. Also I should say I do not endorse these methods but I do feel a computer user should be an informed person. P2P uses a program like Limewire, Kazaa, or others to gain access to a network of users. A person on one end searches for a song (photo, file, etc…) and then gets a list of results. That list is showing all the computers that have these files on them that people are making available. Finally one of the files is selected and it downloads (Saves to your computer). The reason this is increasingly becoming unpopular is the rise of companies that try to track users through these services. Because P2P is user to user it is easier to be traced. Understanding both the good and bad of the net will help you to be a better user. However if you are looking for free music I do not suggest this type of service. I would recommend looking at previous posts that contain info about getting free music but are done in legal ways.

“I steal from every movie ever made.” Quentin Tarantino

Sometimes I am teaching at a location that does not have an internet connection and I need to show an example of something from Youtube. Now obviously because it is streaming video (think water from a fountain, shut off the water and no more fountain) I need the connection to view it. This is not 100% true. You could download it and save it for the time when you need it. Youtube does not endorse downloads or provide a button to do so. However a site called Online FLV Converter has sprung up. Before this site I would have to use at least to 3 programs to accomplish my goal. Now all I do is go to the specific Youtube video I want and copy the URL (address) and then head to OFC. Once there I paste in the URL. I then have to choose the format I want. I personally like .mov but .wmv is easy to play as well. I also love the mp3 choice if I just need the audio to a speech or something like it. The hit convert and download. It may take several minutes depending on the length. Finally a button will appear that says download. Click it and choose where you want to store it. Now I do not endorse using this for illegal purposes. I would use this only for educational purposes and when you are done you should delete the file. That being said give it a try.