File Sharing

1349 Words3 Pages

File Sharing

Napster was just another step into the huge world we know as the internet or the World Wide Web. It was a step I believe in the right direction, but some people have differing views. Napster is a program in which people could chat, share files such as mpeg or mpeg3 layered files or other formatted files across the internet. This program was very controversial because it was a very well made program. Its design and user interface was extremely easy to use. Therefore it attracted more and more people to the files sharing business. I am going to tell you about how Napster works, why it is so controversial, some supporting points, some countering points, its status today, and what is on the outlook for the future.

Napster is a files system with many benefits to the user. As I already have mentioned it is very user friendly. Napster works because the more users it attracts the more files other people can download. It as soon as you run napster your machine becomes a server to the internet with a shared folder able to be access by anyone else using napsters software. Napsters software then allows you to use a keyword based search to find files that you like and goes through the internet to find which other servers have files associated with your keyword. This type of file sharing is called Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing. This program opened up a whole new world for the common computer user because it virtually solved the problem of over stuffed download servers or servers being down because you could find the file you looked for on millions of peer servers. This program also allowed a chat an instant messaging system or chat room, and at the time this time was a big thing to do was to go into chat ro...

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...mputers and the internet were made to make things easier for people and the internet and World Wide Web were specifically made to file share. That was the whole purpose behind the net. That is why this file-sharing technology (P2P) is the new wave of the future and will be a large part of the internet for a long time to come.

Works Cited:

Baase, Sara. A Gift of Fire Second Edition, Pearson Education Inc. pg. 242-243. Copyright 2003

CNN (March 12, 2001) Canada firm uses pig latin to fool Napster block. Available at www.cnn.com/2001/Tech/internet/03/12/napster.02/index.html visited at 11/17/02

Narline, Ryan (November 15, 2002) CD Burning Firm Buys Napster. Available at www.silliconvalley.internet.com/news.php/1501281

Napster: Stealing or Sharing? (November 17, 2002) Napster Time Line. Available at www.cnn.com.specials/2001/napster/timeline.html

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