What are P2Ps?

The acronym P2P stands for “peer-to-peer.” Simply, computer users hooked into the Internet are able to come together with Person A “sharing” a file with Person B while the two are connected to one another’s computers via a P2P program.

Napster was the Internet’s first P2P cause celebre. Napster used a central server to allow users to connect to one another. These days, however, file-sharing programs are designed to connect users without connecting them to the Web site, but through the software.

So, in layman’s terms, a P2P is a program that acts as a conduit to allow you and another computer user to share files (music, movies, games, applications, etc.) The P2P program will normally have a search function that will allow you to find the files for which you are looking.

Is This legal?

Well, owning file-sharing software is not illegal. In fact, there’s nothing illegal with sharing files, either. The problems come when the files being shared are copyrighted. Now, being that the majority of files being traded are copyright protected, then, yes, a lot of P2P activity is illegal.

While many will stand under the banner that the music/film/gaming/computer industry has gouged them for years, and file sharing is sweet payback. Justify it as you will, as we are not here to judge. But, technically, the P2P networks have created a lot of new petty criminals.

Courts around the globe have been working on the copyright-infringement laws in regards to file sharing for the last several years. Of Course, in Napster’s early days, a few young people were actually convicted of music piracy, though at the moment, it does not appear any government is looking to punish random, normal file-sharers.