P2P File Sharing

   Filesharing is the activity of trading digital files with other users over the internet. Files like music, video,documents, games are a few that are shared. Users trade files by downloading to obtain them and uploading to distribute them. File sharing also involves sharing public or private sharing of computer data or space in a network with various levels of access privilege. On the other hand, Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing is a system of sharing files directly between network users, without the assistance or interference of a central server. Files reside on computers of users all over the world and are shared bit by bit between those users directly.
   BitTorrent, KaZaa, eMule, Vuze, uTorrent and BearShare are examples of P2P file sharing programs. An article titled "The BitTorrent effect" at Wired.com, talks about the develpoment of the BitTorrent program and its creator Bram Cohen. It explains the sharing and downloading that BitTorrent makes possible. "BitTorrent lets users quickly upload and download enormous amounts of data, files that are hundreds or thousands of times bigger than Mp3's" says Bram. The real benefits comes from the fact that it can share movies twice as fast as other P2P sharing programs, ususally minutes.