P2P

 File sharing is the exchanging of digital media, such as attaching a Word document to an e-mail. File sharing through digital means has become easy today. Applications such as Google Drive and Dropbox allow you to share your files with multiple people at a time. Google Drive is a popular application for file sharing because not only can multiple people see it at the same time, they can also edit it. 

P2P file sharing is the uploading of files that are not intended to be shared. Some examples of P2P file  sharing are LimeWire, KaZaa, eMule, Vuze, uTorrent, and BitTorrent. P2P file sharing is mostly used to access files that are not allowed to be on public file sharing services. Most times, the files that are shared on P2P are considered illegal. For instance, on LimeWire there is a lot of music uploaded that can also be downloaded. While this may be convenient for the consumer being that they do not have to pay for the music, it is a terrible thing for artists as they are not getting paid for their music. 

An example of P2P file sharing being a nightmare for media owners is depicted on Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios. In this article, Brian Stelter and Brad Stone explain how harmful P2P file sharing is to media owners. As stated by Stelter and Stone, "TorrentFreak.com, a Web site based in Germany that tracks which shows are most downloaded, estimates that each  episode of "Heroes," a series on NBC, is downloaded five million times, representing a substantial loss for the network".  Due to the uploading of copyrighted content, media owners lose out on the money they would have attained if viewers would have watched on their platform. 

Today, there are many streaming services such as Apple Music, Spotify, Hulu and Netflix that allow consumers to have access to unlimited music or movies for a monthly fee. I believe that these streaming services has limited the amount of people using P2P file sharing programs since streaming services are more accessible.