File sharing on p2p is soaring despite the music and movie industry efforts to curb the practice. Regardless of which side of the arguement you are on it is likely that sharing of copyright material will continue in one form or another for the foreseeable future.

With the advent of p2p file sharing it is possible to download music, movies, movie trailers, MP3's, TV shows, software, games and ringtones all for free. All that is required is a fast internet connection and some P2P software. A peer to peer computer network is a network used for sharing content like audio, video, data or anything in digital format. The best known example of p2p file sharing application was Napster. Napster was shutdown following a lawsuit with the music industry.

Today, Napster has been replaced by a new type of application which required no central server and allows the anonymous sharing of files. The most common peer to peer networks today are Kazaa, Grokster, eMule and Morpheus.

Be warned however that much of the content on p2p networks is copyright material and therefore downloading or sharing this material can violate copyright laws especially in light of the recent US Supreme Court rules against file-sharing services. There is also the risk of downloading viruses and spyware as these file-sharing networks are not secure. Spyware and adware programs are frequently bundled into P2P file sharing software. Downloaded material could also contain pornography. More file sharing info

(c) Noel Hynes, 2004. Reprint rights granted to copy and publish this article so long as the article and by-line are reprinted intact. File sharing info