File sharing is just what it sounds like: sharing files with someone else either over the net or physically. Sounds simple, right? Well, it gets way more complicated when copyright laws come into play with the information that is getting distributed. File sharing has become a great concern for copyright holders in the digital media industry, namely the film and music industries.
To date, there are more than a few ways to share files on the net as well, which is where things really start to get complicated. One of these ways involves directly posting files to a server and allowing people to download them. This method is oftentimes not very reliable because the filenames are usually modified to prevent the owner of the information from knowing exactly what is contained in the download. Once the owner of the information finds it, they will force the server to take down the link to the file. Another method is called peer-to-peer or P2P for short. This is a method of sharing files where one person makes the file available directly from their computer to the other computer which is downloading it. Another method or style of P2P is called torrenting, and it deals with files that are broken up into tiny pieces and then a torrent file (.tor extension) contains instructions on how to put the pieces together again. Numerous lawsuits have been fought on the topic of file sharing, but no matter the number of lawsuits won or lost it hasn’t affected the desire for millions and millions of people to continue sharing these files back and forth every single day.
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