<p>Problem: Record companies are facing a downturn in sales of music. This is seen as consequence of the growth of distribution of music through Internet by file sharing networks such as BitTorrent networks. On one side there are record companies who feel threatened of the illegal file sharing, and on the other side file sharing BitTorrent networks has increased dramatically in number of users since they first approached. Some record companies have responded by taking hostile actions towards the BitTorrent networks and their users with lawsuits and penalties for illegal file sharing. Other record companies and artists have joined forces with BitTorrent networks and see them as an advantage. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze if, and how record companies can collaborate with the BitTorrent networks. Method: A hermeneutic inductive approach is used, in combination with qualitative interviews with both record companies and BitTorrent networks. Conclusions: It is argued that record companies can find a way in communicating and cooperating with BitTorrent networks. Instead of adopting hostile approaches and trying to restrict the technologies adopted by end users, companies should open themselves up and accept the current changes initiated and developed by BitTorrent networks. Thus, it was concluded that companies have to concentrate around collaborating with BitTorrent networks rather than fiercely protecting old business models. By opening up to the users, record companies will adopt open innovations approach that is characterized by combining external and internal ideas, as well internal and external paths to market, thus obtaining future technological developments. As for the BitTorrent networks, by going from outlaw to crowdsourcing mode, the networks’ creative solutions can be further harnessed by record companies. Finally, strengthening relationships between customers and music artists can be considered as beneficial for both record companies and BitTorrent networks. Thus, giving opportunities for customers to win special items, tickets for concerts, watch sound check, eat dinner backstage with the group, take pictures, get autographs, watch the show from the side of the stage, etc. can lead to valuable relationship in a long run.</p>

Problem: Record companies are facing a downturn in sales of music. This is seen as consequence of the growth of distribution of music through Internet by file sharing networks such as BitTorrent networks. On one side there are record companies who feel threatened of the illegal file sharing, and on the other side file sharing BitTorrent networks has increased dramatically in number of users since they first approached. Some record companies have responded by taking hostile actions towards the BitTorrent networks and their users with lawsuits and penalties for illegal file sharing. Other record companies and artists have joined forces with BitTorrent networks and see them as an advantage. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze if, and how record companies can collaborate with the BitTorrent networks. Method: A hermeneutic inductive approach is used, in combination with qualitative interviews with both record companies and BitTorrent networks. Conclusions: It is argued that record companies can find a way in communicating and cooperating with BitTorrent networks. Instead of adopting hostile approaches and trying to restrict the technologies adopted by end users, companies should open themselves up and accept the current changes initiated and developed by BitTorrent networks. Thus, it was concluded that companies have to concentrate around collaborating with BitTorrent networks rather than fiercely protecting old business models. By opening up to the users, record companies will adopt open innovations approach that is characterized by combining external and internal ideas, as well internal and external paths to market, thus obtaining future technological developments. As for the BitTorrent networks, by going from outlaw to crowdsourcing mode, the networks’ creative solutions can be further harnessed by record companies. Finally, strengthening relationships between customers and music artists can be considered as beneficial for both record companies and BitTorrent networks. Thus, giving opportunities for customers to win special items, tickets for concerts, watch sound check, eat dinner backstage with the group, take pictures, get autographs, watch the show from the side of the stage, etc. can lead to valuable relationship in a long run.

Redes BitTorrent (BT) atualmente representam o método Par-a-Par (P2P) de compartilhamento de arquivos pela Internet mais utilizado. Relatórios de monitoramento recentes revelam que as cópias de conteúdo sendo compartilhadas são, em grande maioria, ilegais e que filmes são os tipos de mídia mais populares. Iniciativas de pesquisa que tentaram entender a dinâmica da produção e do compartilhamento de conteúdo em redes BT não conseguiram prover informações precisas acerca da disseminação de cópias ilegais. No presente trabalho realizamos um extenso estudo experimental para caracterizar o comportamento de produtores, publicadores, provedores e consumidores de arquivos violando direitos autorais. O estudo conduzido é baseado em dados coletados durante sete meses de monitoração de enxames compartilhando filmes por meio de uma das comunidades públicas mais populares de BT. Os dados foram obtidos via emprego de uma arquitetura de monitoração do \universo" BitTorrent, o que permitiu popular uma base com informações acerca de mais de 55.000 torrents, 1.000 rastreadores e 1,9 milhões de IPs. Nossa análise não somente mostra que um pequeno grupo de usuários ativos _e responsável pela maior parte do compartilhamento de cópias ilegais, como desvenda relacionamentos existentes entre esses atores e caracteriza os padrões de consumo respeitados pelos usuários interessados nesse tipo de conteúdo. / BitTorrent (BT) networks are nowadays the most employed method of Peerto- Peer (P2P) le sharing in the Internet. Recent monitoring reports reveal that content copies being shared are mostly illegal and movies are the most popular media type. Research e orts carried out to understand the dynamics of content production and sharing in BT networks have been unable to provide precise information regarding the dissemination of illegal copies. In this work we perform an extensive experimental study in order to characterize the behavior of producers, publishers, providers and consumers of copyright-infringing les. This study is based on seven months of traces obtained by monitoring swarms sharing movies via one of the most popular BT public communities. Traces were obtained with an extension of a BitTorrent \universe" observation architecture, which allowed the collection of a database with information about more than 55,000 torrents, 1,000 trackers and 1.9 million IPs. Our analysis not only shows that a small group of active users is responsible for the majority of disseminated illegal copies, as it unravels existing relationships among these actors and characterizes consuming patterns respected by users interested in this particular set of contents.

Redes BitTorrent (BT) atualmente representam o método Par-a-Par (P2P) de compartilhamento de arquivos pela Internet mais utilizado. Relatórios de monitoramento recentes revelam que as cópias de conteúdo sendo compartilhadas são, em grande maioria, ilegais e que filmes são os tipos de mídia mais populares. Iniciativas de pesquisa que tentaram entender a dinâmica da produção e do compartilhamento de conteúdo em redes BT não conseguiram prover informações precisas acerca da disseminação de cópias ilegais. No presente trabalho realizamos um extenso estudo experimental para caracterizar o comportamento de produtores, publicadores, provedores e consumidores de arquivos violando direitos autorais. O estudo conduzido é baseado em dados coletados durante sete meses de monitoração de enxames compartilhando filmes por meio de uma das comunidades públicas mais populares de BT. Os dados foram obtidos via emprego de uma arquitetura de monitoração do \universo" BitTorrent, o que permitiu popular uma base com informações acerca de mais de 55.000 torrents, 1.000 rastreadores e 1,9 milhões de IPs. Nossa análise não somente mostra que um pequeno grupo de usuários ativos _e responsável pela maior parte do compartilhamento de cópias ilegais, como desvenda relacionamentos existentes entre esses atores e caracteriza os padrões de consumo respeitados pelos usuários interessados nesse tipo de conteúdo. / BitTorrent (BT) networks are nowadays the most employed method of Peerto- Peer (P2P) le sharing in the Internet. Recent monitoring reports reveal that content copies being shared are mostly illegal and movies are the most popular media type. Research e orts carried out to understand the dynamics of content production and sharing in BT networks have been unable to provide precise information regarding the dissemination of illegal copies. In this work we perform an extensive experimental study in order to characterize the behavior of producers, publishers, providers and consumers of copyright-infringing les. This study is based on seven months of traces obtained by monitoring swarms sharing movies via one of the most popular BT public communities. Traces were obtained with an extension of a BitTorrent \universe" observation architecture, which allowed the collection of a database with information about more than 55,000 torrents, 1,000 trackers and 1.9 million IPs. Our analysis not only shows that a small group of active users is responsible for the majority of disseminated illegal copies, as it unravels existing relationships among these actors and characterizes consuming patterns respected by users interested in this particular set of contents.

Redes BitTorrent (BT) atualmente representam o método Par-a-Par (P2P) de compartilhamento de arquivos pela Internet mais utilizado. Relatórios de monitoramento recentes revelam que as cópias de conteúdo sendo compartilhadas são, em grande maioria, ilegais e que filmes são os tipos de mídia mais populares. Iniciativas de pesquisa que tentaram entender a dinâmica da produção e do compartilhamento de conteúdo em redes BT não conseguiram prover informações precisas acerca da disseminação de cópias ilegais. No presente trabalho realizamos um extenso estudo experimental para caracterizar o comportamento de produtores, publicadores, provedores e consumidores de arquivos violando direitos autorais. O estudo conduzido é baseado em dados coletados durante sete meses de monitoração de enxames compartilhando filmes por meio de uma das comunidades públicas mais populares de BT. Os dados foram obtidos via emprego de uma arquitetura de monitoração do \universo" BitTorrent, o que permitiu popular uma base com informações acerca de mais de 55.000 torrents, 1.000 rastreadores e 1,9 milhões de IPs. Nossa análise não somente mostra que um pequeno grupo de usuários ativos _e responsável pela maior parte do compartilhamento de cópias ilegais, como desvenda relacionamentos existentes entre esses atores e caracteriza os padrões de consumo respeitados pelos usuários interessados nesse tipo de conteúdo. / BitTorrent (BT) networks are nowadays the most employed method of Peerto- Peer (P2P) le sharing in the Internet. Recent monitoring reports reveal that content copies being shared are mostly illegal and movies are the most popular media type. Research e orts carried out to understand the dynamics of content production and sharing in BT networks have been unable to provide precise information regarding the dissemination of illegal copies. In this work we perform an extensive experimental study in order to characterize the behavior of producers, publishers, providers and consumers of copyright-infringing les. This study is based on seven months of traces obtained by monitoring swarms sharing movies via one of the most popular BT public communities. Traces were obtained with an extension of a BitTorrent \universe" observation architecture, which allowed the collection of a database with information about more than 55,000 torrents, 1,000 trackers and 1.9 million IPs. Our analysis not only shows that a small group of active users is responsible for the majority of disseminated illegal copies, as it unravels existing relationships among these actors and characterizes consuming patterns respected by users interested in this particular set of contents.