overview

winners?

technologies

responses

chronology










related
Guides:

Intellectual Property

Electronic
Publishing

Security &
InfoCrime

Governance

Information
Economy

     overview

This profile considers 'filesharing' - licit and illicit online access and distribution of sound recordings, video, still images and other content. Filesharing has posed questions about rights and responsibilities in the online economy, intellectual property and infocrime. It has also gained media attention for ongoing conflict over services such as Napster, Gnutella and FreeNet.

     contents of this profile

This page provides an orientation, with a brief history of filesharing and questions about its significance.

The following pages cover -

winners & losers? - an exploration of claims made by filesharing service operators, consumers, record companies, performers, songwriters, legal theorists and others in what was once dubbed "The Napster Wars"

technologies - more detailed information about filesharing technologies such as Mp3, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and iTunes, along with a discussion of electronic copyright management systems (ECMS)

responses - the range of corporate and individual responses to illicit online distribution of content, including different litigation stategies.

a chronology of key technologies, business and legal developments

   next page (winners and losers)