P2P-Zone - View Single Post - File Swapping Sites Multiply Despite Legal Tangles

Stoepsel · 30-04-02, 01:32 AM

Hi Jack,

I just have to smile at how the media often simplify and categorize things. The new buzz word is P2P (peer-to-peer) and is currently only equated to mean file-sharing a la Kazaa and cohorts.

This undoubtedly gives P2P a bad wrap since it is simply a concept of how peer clients can interact on a distributed, heterogenous network without the need for a central server that coordinates all this.

Yes, file-sharing is at the moment the killer-app for P2P. But there are bound to be more 'meaningful' applications of this concept than to simply exchange files among a large community of users.

Furthermore, P2P is simply a step towards even more 'anarchical' distributed systems, where devices (desktop computers, PDAs, printers, software systems, ...) connect dynamically to a network, advertise their services and likewise find out about and use services provided by other devices on the network.

Concepts like this are currently under development and first results can be seen in projects like Sun's JINI (http://wwws.sun.com/software/jini/).

Stoepsel

30-04-02, 01:32 AM	#2
Stoepsel Waiting For The Night To Fall... Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 225	P2P is more than just file-sharing Hi Jack, I just have to smile at how the media often simplify and categorize things. The new buzz word is P2P (peer-to-peer) and is currently only equated to mean file-sharing a la Kazaa and cohorts. This undoubtedly gives P2P a bad wrap since it is simply a concept of how peer clients can interact on a distributed, heterogenous network without the need for a central server that coordinates all this. Yes, file-sharing is at the moment the killer-app for P2P. But there are bound to be more 'meaningful' applications of this concept than to simply exchange files among a large community of users. Furthermore, P2P is simply a step towards even more 'anarchical' distributed systems, where devices (desktop computers, PDAs, printers, software systems, ...) connect dynamically to a network, advertise their services and likewise find out about and use services provided by other devices on the network. Concepts like this are currently under development and first results can be seen in projects like Sun's JINI (http://wwws.sun.com/software/jini/). Stoepsel __________________ Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk?