Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Bulsajo]

Piracy crackdown spurs shift in online file-sharing
Mon Aug 29, 2005 3:17 PM BST

By Adam Pasick

LONDON (Reuters) - Traffic in the popular file-sharing network BitTorrent has fallen in the wake of a crackdown on piracy, but file sharers have merely shifted to another network, eDonkey, new data released on Monday showed.

Popular movies like "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" have surfaced on BitTorrent before they even appeared in theatres.

A study by the Cambridge-based Internet analysis firm CacheLogic found that eDonkey is now roughly on par with BitTorrent in the United States, China, Japan and Britain.

It is the dominant peer-to-peer file-sharing network in South Korea, which has the world's highest percentage of high-speed Internet use, and also in Italy, Spain and Germany.

"This is almost assuredly a result of the increased legal action towards the once-ignored BitTorrent -- a game of P2P hide-and-seek," said CacheLogic's chief technology officer Andrew Parker.

Last year, BitTorrent was consuming up to a third of the Internet's total bandwidth as users traded huge movie and television files. Hollywood struck back with a slew of lawsuits to shut down Web sites that provided "tracker" links, which tell the network where to look for files.

The United States has also seen a surprising return to popularity of the Gnutella file-sharing network, which had faded after an earlier crackdown by music companies.

"Gnutella was once seen as dead so may be off the radar" of the music and movie industries, Parker said. "It's proof that legal pressure from industry groups results in the mass migration of file sharers to an alternative network, whether old or new. This cat and mouse game will continue."

About 60 percent of the Internet's total bandwidth consists of P2P traffic, according to the CacheLogic study. P2P, which sends data from user to user, is often difficult to shut down because networks don't rely on a centralised server to distribute data.

In a precedent-setting ruling earlier this summer, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against P2P firm Grokster, saying that because the company's intent was to encourage copyright infringement, it could be held liable for the movies and music traded on its network.

But any hopes from Hollywood that the Grokster ruling would result in less P2P traffic have not been fulfilled, according to CacheLogic.

"The Grokster case did not result in a rapid decline in P2P usage," Parker said.

[Pangit]

I doubt the network admin will do anything about anything. If your client doesn't work after installing it, just try another one.

[Naruto]

[Demophobe]

[Naruto]

[Demophobe]

If you are going to make grand statements without any proof of your argument, then don't expect people to just eat it up.

Why is it bad work ethics? How do you equate it to playing a video game while students are testing? Why do you say that 99.9% of the files on Bittorrent are illegal?

Starting Edonkey and leaving it in the tray while you go about your business day is no kind of distraction, and as I said, as long as the files are work-related, it's of no consequence to anyone. The school superintendant could come in and check it all out and still no foul. Legal, work-related files being downloaded with a freeware program...doesn't sound wrong at all.

Playing a video game is completely distracting, and it's not just about ethics as to why a teacher who is supervising a test shouldn't do it. It's a ridiculous comparison.

Finally, as I said, the files being shared on the networks are not illegal to the degree you have outlined. This is the exact reason they are able to continue their existance. There are a huge number of legal files...perhaps you have only searched for/downloaded the illegal ones? Granted, it's the illegal ones that have gotten all the publicity, and therefore many people believe that they are all illegal, but this is far from the truth.

[Naruto]

First off the majority of the files shared on bittorrent sites are illegal. Any file, property, etc, is illegal if it is widely distributed without expresseed consent from the original authors. And even without that you'd have to be pretty naive to think that the majority of the files shared on bittorrent aren't things such as games, movies, mp3's, tv series, cartoons, anime, all of which are obviously illegal.

As far as bad work ethics are concerned. You're using school property (in this case both the internet access and computers) for non-teaching, non-job related activities. REGARDLESS of what they are. The point is not that you're surfing porn or anything, but that at the very basic fundamentals of work ethics - you're using property that isn't yours for PERSONAL reasons in a context unrelated to school. And please tell me WHAT files exactly are "work related" so that you have to download from Bittorrent sites? Please provide links and filenames for verification.

Just because the U.S. government hasn't publically declared war on all P2P filesharing programs and networks doesn't mean it's not illegal. In fact several of the most popular bittorrent sites HAVE been taken down. Ever hear of ShareReactor? The govt' simply cannot enforce (due to the nature of the internet) nor has the resources to pursue each and every site that hosts Bittorrent links. Take speeding for instance. Cops stop people that are speeding and give tickets but they are unable to stop every person that speeds. They simply don't have the resources to enforce it. Same with the internet and network P2P like eDonkey and Bittorrent.

[Demophobe]

Fortunately, I don't have to prove anything, as I am only asking you to support your statements.

From 99.9% to "the majority".

Perhaps you didn't get the meaning of "job-related materials". This would explain why you are still arguing this point, when I very clearly stated already that using it for "job-related materials" isn't bad ethics. Why you keep arguing a point that nobody is talking about is beyond me.

I don't use Bittorrent, but have in the past, and got a lot of children's songs in .mp3 and .wav formats (chkd:copyright) and stories in .PDF format for free distribution and use in the classroom. Also, there are many .txt files and .hwp files on the networks for all subjects in the Korean school system...take a look for yourself. TOEIC, TOEFL and TEPS papers written by good people who "publish" these guides/how-tos and samples just to help.

Links and verification? Har! What are you, the police? Get a dog for those kind of commands. No, I won't bother. I know they are there, and in great numbers, so I am fine with just telling you. Believe me or not, I don't care.

I think also you need to see who shut down the torrent sites and why. I mean who shut them down, not who kicked in the doors.

Now, all you have done is rephrased and paraphrased your own opinion. It was you who started this, and the job is still yours to substantiate what you are saying with facts, not more heresay.

The three questions two posts up still are unanswered factually.

Answer! With links for verification!!

[Naruto]

And i'm asking you to support your ignorant statements. You're right i AM repeating myself because it seems you have trouble reading them so i need to keep restating them. I keep arguing about this because you keep replying with your ignorant statements. What "job related" materials require you to use Bittorrent as the only means of getting them when it's obvious that Bittorrent is used primarily for the distribution of illegal materials. Why do you have to be downloading them from the school computers? What about your own home? What about downloading while you're sleeping? The point is you're not fooling anyone with your "justified" downloading of your so called "children's songs". And where are these sites that have all these so called "valid" information via Bittorrent? I ask for them because i've NEVER seen them on ANY Bittorrent site EVER. Why? Because, the people that publish or create that kind of stuff do not USE Bittorrent networks to distribute this stuff. It's not in their PR campaign. IF they're there, it's because some dude distributed it illegally. Instead of trying to argue with me like a pathetic child maybe it's you who needs to step back and actually answer with some "real" facts instead of making up phantom "job-related" materials that you got off of "valid" Bittorrent sites. It's laughable. How's that for "rephrasing"?