Torrent Sharing and its effect as a Disruptive Technology
During the final years of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st the introduction of p2p sharing revolutionized the way information could be distributed. P2p sharing allowed for computers to take information from foreign hosts i.e. (Users/Seeders) rather than taking information from a network much like an http or ftp download. Users draw the required data they needed from multiple users in small pieces and assembled them to eventually create the requested file that they wished to download. I will be referencing a program known as “KaZaA”; a decentralized p2p program that allowed for basic search activity as well as single and zipped file transfers 4.
“KaZaA” though not as reputable as “Napster” was a downloadable program that drew upon users who also installed the application. Like most to all p2p programs at the time the sharing community was limited to those who had the program, example a file distributed by KaZaA could not be shared with a Napster user unless a client had both programs already installed. With the advent of Torrent sharing it allowed for users to share information with anybody regardless of the program they used to transfer data. In other words it created a community far larger than any file sharing application did in the past allowing for files to be exchanged exponentially faster and expanding the library of sharable files atleast a 100 fold.
It should be noted that Bittorent and Bittorent clients are not p2p applications but instead an entirely new process known as file sharing. As file sharing is a newer way of distributing data than the other p2p model it can be considered as the successor to p2p.
Bittorent was in a sense the next logical step in file sharing as it seemed to improve upon the faults and errors that were evident with the p2p clients of the current age. Though Bittorent in itself has faults not evident in p2p such less effort in concealing anonymity, it has made more of a disruptive effect upon the entertainment industry, music industry, and publishing industry than p2p ever did. One feature that Bittorent is known for is that it’s sharing community is far larger than any p2p program in the past has been able to hold. This is because Bittorent’s client programs are compatible with each other regardless of the application and grants them access to every seeder/leecher that is affiliated with the torrent. It is because of the mass amount of people that are available to distribute data that a torrent is able to stay alive for years if its popularity is sufficient. This causes far more of an effect upon the media industry as it’s easier to obtain larger .avi/.mkv files if there are more seeders to distribute it.
Another feature evident in Torrent sharing is the ability to view contents of zip/rar files that the torrent will upload to your computer. It also grants you access to which of the contents you would to download meaning that you are able to retrieve the data you want without downloading the entire zipped file. This feature gives you the security you need to download larger box torrents without having to worry about obtaining information, viruses, or spam that you don’t want.
Finally Bittorent takes advantage of the blogging system that we learned in class earlier. As Torrent as uploaded to websites for public download they are often accompanied by a blog with user comments detailing torrent information, such as quality, uploader information, and user comments from those who have already completed downloading the requested file. Some sites that allow this are “Mininova” and “PirateBay”, continuing to pool their users together “Torrents. to” has created a portal site that allows for users to instantly jump from site to site inspecting and comparing torrent comments and updated seeder to lecher ratios 3. By providing this information people know what to expect from the torrent, as p2p had many flaws regarding the contents of its files with nobody to justify its contents except based on the amount of seeders it currently has. This along with the ability to view the contents of the zipped file give more than enough reason for people to download larger box torrents and .avi files as it offers more security and reliability to justify that the contents you are going to download are authentic and will cause no harm to your computer.
As a “Disruptive Technology” I believe that Bittorent is the bigger monster, solely because the community that uses application is so big that files that would take days to transfer in KaZaA and older p2p program take mere hours to minutes to complete. For example the DVD release of “Don’t Mess with the Zohan” will be on Oct. 8, 2008 yet a leak occurred and the torrent has already received 10,354 seeders with an estimated 12,783 leechers 1. Another example would be the newest episode of a cartoon called “Naruto” with the latest episode having 27,833 seeders and nearly 10,000 leechers 2. The additional features such as the blog rating system and the uploader information introduced by Bittorent allow for these torrents to stay alive far longer than they would if there were distributed on p2p systems thus having an effect on the media, publishing, and music industry in the long run as listeners and readers will be able to easily find a website that distributes these torrents. As the world continues to move into the digital age and more people beginning to access the internet for the first time they will be unable to pay for a majority of the entertainment they wish to watch. It will lead to more people logging into torrent sites and to seed/leech and distribute data and will only continue to grow larger until the media industry does something drastic to make sure it’s dwindling sales don’t continue to tail spin into the ground.
Sources
http://www.mininova.org/tor/1766066
