Software developers and researchers are struggling to find new ways to reliably, efficiently and securely share data across wide area networks that are cursed by high latency nodes (also known as slow servers). A decentralized network has no central authority, which means that it can operate with freely running servers alone (peer-to-peer, or P2P). ...
A perfect example of technology backfiring on us is expressed in the recent events involving the file-sharing network known to many as "Kazaa". As many online users know, Kazaa is a program that enables people to share their files, and in turn, download others'. In the few years it has been availabl...
A young man named Shaun Fanning who attended high school in Harwich, Massachusetts had two loves, sports and computers. As he became more interested in computers, he decided to stop playing sports and turn his attention toward working with computers. He focused on two aspects of computers, programmi...
Look at this person. He seems like an average teenager, possibly doing homework on his laptop. Maybe just simply searching the web? Well, what if I told you that he's not doing homework, because he dropped out of college just recently. What if I told you that he is writing code? Code for what y...
It took a mere few months to create this stunning new technology, coupling a music search function with a file sharing system, along with instant messaging to facilitate communication.1 Napster was created for one reason, to allow computer users to swap music mp3 files with one another directly, without having to go through a centralized file server or middleman. ...
In 1993 worldwide illegal copying of domestic and international software cost $12.5 billion to the software industry, with a loss of $2.2 billion in the United States alone. Estimates show that over 40 percent of U.S. software company revenues are generated overseas, yet nearly 85 percent of the software industry's piracy losses occurred outside of the United States borders. The Software Publishers Association indicated that approximately 35 percent of the business software in the United States was obtained illegally, which 30 percent of the piracy occurs in corporate sett...
