Module 5 - Peer To Peer

Peer to Peer is such a complex and large issue. In fact it's so large that estimates are that Peer to Peer (predominantly BitTorrent) makes up nearly 55% of all Internet traffic (that is depending where you are located). This is enormous amounts of data that is being shared daily across the globe.

Yet to me it's not the sharing of files, or the enormity of the amount of data shared. For me it's what is happening at this very moment with the attack against civil liberties online, all under the premise of protection of IP.

At this time there are three major occurrences in the online world which should have all netizens worried.


Things to watch

1. Spectrial - The Pirate Bay vs IFPI. Check this out.
2. AFACT vs iiNet - This case could decide whether a private company (your ISP) is required to act as the police and monitor your usage of the Internet based on the claims of another private enterprise without any criminal charges.
3. Section 92A - The New Zealand Government introduces harsh new legislation which essentially says "Guilt upon Accusation" when it comes to file sharing.

The outcomes of these cases and changes to law will impact not on the pirates and the Peer to Peer networks, they will just find another way to share files, but on the everyday user of the Internet.

So I'm not going to get into the legality of sharing files and the supposed death of the music and film industries. I'm not going to get into how Peer to Peer can actually increase CD sales and increase an artists concert takings. What I am going to ask you is: Go out and actually explore both sides of the arguments, look beyond the rhetoric and see for yourself how this can affect, will affect your ability to use the internet, to communicate in new ways and discover new things.

This is your Internet we are talking about here, and while you may think these have things have no bearing on you cause, "I don't share files", think again friend.

Really, What Is The Internet To You?

So I just had a thought, yes an actual thought, about the internet and what it means to me.

Over on Webct I became involved in a discussion about Virtual Personalities, through the discussion one fellow students made the comment "The Internet, for me, is just a tool for making my social circle bigger and nearer."

Now that got me thinking, how do I really see the internet, what is it that attracts me and what do I use it for? For me the internet is not about the social aspect, it's nice but I don't really use it that much. For me the internet is about the information it provides me at the stroke of a key. Everyday I use it to find new ways of doing something, enhance the skills I all ready have or just discover random information.

Yet I know the internet is even more than that again and I am still only scraping the surface. So what is the internet to you? Community, learning mechanism, a place for shopping, a marketing tool or a tool for change?