Jia, Lu. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 76-80). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.iv / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Background Study --- p.7 / Chapter 3 --- Analysis of P2P Tracker Designs --- p.11 / Chapter 1 --- Tracker design in P2P systems --- p.11 / Chapter 1.1 --- A taxonomy of tracker designs --- p.11 / Chapter 1.2 --- Design considerations --- p.14 / Chapter 2 --- A reliability model for DHT-based tracker design --- p.15 / Chapter 2.1 --- DHT basics --- p.15 / Chapter 2.2 --- Model preliminaries and assumptions --- p.16 / Chapter 2.3 --- Model description --- p.18 / Chapter 3 --- Reliability analysis --- p.25 / Chapter 3.1 --- Related parameters --- p.25 / Chapter 3.2 --- Simulation setup --- p.27 / Chapter 3.3 --- Results --- p.30 / Chapter 3.4 --- Observations from modeling work --- p.35 / Chapter 3.5 --- Methods of DHT stabilization --- p.37 / Chapter 4 --- A Black-Box Study of Xunlei --- p.44 / Chapter 1 --- An Overview of Xunlei and its key components --- p.44 / Chapter 1.1 --- An overview --- p.44 / Chapter 1.2 --- Key components --- p.46 / Chapter 2 --- Participating into other swarms: Xunlei´ةs multi-protocol downloading strategy --- p.47 / Chapter 2.1 --- BitTorrent and eMule basics --- p.47 / Chapter 2.2 --- BitTorrent and eMule in Xunlei --- p.48 / Chapter 2.3 --- Multi-protocol downloading --- p.52 / Chapter 3 --- Xunlei servers --- p.54 / Chapter 4 --- Understanding Xunlei!s private protocol --- p.56 / Chapter 4.1 --- Exchanging peer lists --- p.56 / Chapter 4.2 --- Exchanging file data --- p.58 / Chapter 4.3 --- Error control and congestion control --- p.62 / Chapter 5 --- Further discussions --- p.65 / Chapter 5.1 --- Proximity of content --- p.65 / Chapter 5.2 --- Active swarm peers --- p.66 / Chapter 5.3 --- UDP-based data transmission --- p.69 / Chapter 5 --- Conclusion --- p.74 / Bibliography --- p.76

Words like pirates and anti-pirates are becoming common features in the cultural political debate of today, and the file-sharing phenomenon has become a more and more delicate and disputed subject. The fact that people are organizing in networks to swap computerfiles with each other has, among other things, led film and music companies from all over the world to initiate a number of anti-piracy organizations, assigned to protect the right to culture and information. The industrial organization Antipiratbyrån (the Anti-pirate Bureau) and the network Piratbyrån (the Pirate Bureau) have on several occasions been used to represent the prevailing conflict in Sweden. The purpose of this study is to apply a sociological perspective to the collective act of file sharing. Additionally, the purpose is to argue that the activity can be understood as a social movement, although it is rarely referred to as such. By focusing on the distinctly organized part of the file-sharing movement, the goal has principally been to answer how the collective action and the conveyance of knowledge, that is taking place within the movement, can be understood and which the fundamental ideas are. The study has its starting point in theories about the cognitive praxis – or core identity – of social movements. Among the methods used, interviews with representatives from Piratbyrån were valuable tools, but also other sources, like the Piratbyrån website and forum along with their participation in the media, have been the basis of the analysis. This led to a few conclusions worth considering. The most important result of the study is that it is relevant to talk about a new social movement. This movement is above all characterized by individual autonomy, expressed in a fundametal belief in the individual and some kind of “egoistic” solidarity. Closely connected to this is the everyday practice that makes the existence of the movement possible. The conclusion of the study is that the use of the technology is experienced as a political act, associated by the activists to a decentralization of power and control. Therefore, any restraint of the technology is also experienced as a restraint of man’s autonomy.

“Heavy” file sharers’ and “heavy” activists’ values and attitudes toward file sharing and intellectual property rights are analyzed in this thesis, with a focus on the conflict between property owners and non-owners. The purpose of this MA thesis is to investigate the perception of file sharing and intellectual property rights on the Internet. The main research questions is: How do “heavy” file sharers and “heavy” activists perceive file sharing and intellectual property rights on the Internet?. For answering it, critical political economy and both qualitative and quantitative methods are used. Therefore, the paper consists of two major parts. In the first part, the theoretical framework is introduced. In the second part, empirical research is presented and the theoretical framework is applied to the analysis of the gathered data. Data were collected with the help of a survey. The main results of the study suggest that “heavy” file sharers and “heavy” activists tend to have left-wing values and a left-wing political agenda behind file sharing, and perceive culture, and information and knowledge as “public goods”. Furthermore, “heavy” file sharers and “heavy” activists tend to contribute to the Net gift economy and share their created content in a way that constitutes an alternative to intellectual property rights, which they see as out-of-date.

Downloading information from the Internet is an incredibly popular activity. Some of the information is used for scholarly or educational purposes, some is used for entertainment, as well as all sorts of other purposes. Books, movies, video games, and music are being downloaded by an increasing number of Internet users. Some of these digital files contain information that is perfectly legal to use and share but a great majority of these files are illegal to download. Recent technological developments in digital and Internet technologies have made the downloading of both legal and illegal digital content very easy and very fast. These technological developments have brought about a tension between two conflicting interests among Internet users. One of these interests drives people to download content illegally and the other interest drives people to act in ways intended to stop such illegal downloading. Much legal attention has been given to this issue in the past few years, but little sustained philosophical attention. In this thesis I discuss the moral issues that come along with the illegal downloading of information via the Internet with a focus on music files. I present the issue of illegal music downloading through the use of a scalar utilitarian theory with a focus on preference satisfaction. I conclude that the act of downloading is in aggregate morally permissible, and further, that the status quo bundle of intellectual property rights (copyright) that protect these files should be removed. Also, I provide a rough sketch of how all people concerned can satisfy both of the conflicting interests (mentioned above) through the use of copyleft protections.

Peer-to-peer file sharing has overturned the traditional way to communication, and has great impacts on society. But as so far, there are only few researches concerning this problem from users¡¦ point of view, why and how users take use of it is still equivocal. Therefore in this research, I examined the motivations and behavior of P2P uses with uses and gratifications approach, and further more, whether motivations for P2P uses explain users¡¦ behaviors and considered the contribution of individual characteristics are also examined. As for motivations, a factor analysis revealed five motivations to use P2P file sharing software: Information seeking, Convenience, Library storage, Interpersonal communication and Self-achievement. Motivations are related to individual characteristics, including gender, age, the duration of internet use and P2P use, income, and education. Several motivations and individual differences predict P2P use. And grouping users with cluster analysis, this research found three types of users: highly involved users, low involved users, and those who just want to download files. Highly involved users launch software frequently, have the strong motivations and are willing to share files with others. On the contrary, low involved users use less frequently, and have the relatively weak motivation of P2P use. Those who just download files are unwilling to share files with others.

<p>This study focuses on the proactive methods against illegal downloading. This study will look into the new implemented IPRED law that could be seen as one attempt to prevent the illegal downloading. Furthermore, this study investigates how new services such as Spotify can be a legal alternative to the illegal downloading and also how the music industry has handled the transition from CD sales to the new digital media.</p><p> </p><p>Our research consists of both qualitative and quantitative study where a survey has been conducted among 50 people in Jönköping University. The study also consists of two interviews from experts within the field which gave the study more credibility.</p><p> </p><p>We discovered through our research that the music industry has been going through four different phases and that the actual state the music industry is that they have started to accept the technology and adjust their business to it. We have also discovered through our survey that the IPRED law has had an impact in the fight against illegal downloading. The winner is Spotify that most users have turned to when the IPRED law was introduced.</p>

<p>The internet itself is continuously changing. Since it was widely introduced, the users’ main focus has shifted from a communication tool, to a huge file sharing pool, to a marketing tool, to an information gathering and information reproducing tool.</p><p>Nowadays the way of sharing files needs to be reconsidered, because more and more private information is shared over the internet. The common file sharing applications are no longer appropriate for today’s purposes. Also the common way of socializing people is not up to date anymore.</p><p>Sharing files already implies a communication between users. But why do we not use the given information of shared data in order to socialize them? This thesis discusses the problematic domains of sharing images and socializing and introduces a tool named Picnic that has been conceived and implemented in order to overcome those problems.</p>

<p>Words like pirates and anti-pirates are becoming common features in the cultural political debate of today, and the file-sharing phenomenon has become a more and more delicate and disputed subject. The fact that people are organizing in networks to swap computerfiles with each other has, among other things, led film and music companies from all over the world to initiate a number of anti-piracy organizations, assigned to protect the right to culture and information. The industrial organization Antipiratbyrån (the Anti-pirate Bureau) and the network Piratbyrån (the Pirate Bureau) have on several occasions been used to represent the prevailing conflict in Sweden. The purpose of this study is to apply a sociological perspective to the collective act of file sharing. Additionally, the purpose is to argue that the activity can be understood as a social movement, although it is rarely referred to as such. By focusing on the distinctly organized part of the file-sharing movement, the goal has principally been to answer how the collective action and the conveyance of knowledge, that is taking place within the movement, can be understood and which the fundamental ideas are. The study has its starting point in theories about the cognitive praxis – or core identity – of social movements. Among the methods used, interviews with representatives from Piratbyrån were valuable tools, but also other sources, like the Piratbyrån website and forum along with their participation in the media, have been the basis of the analysis. This led to a few conclusions worth considering. The most important result of the study is that it is relevant to talk about a new social movement. This movement is above all characterized by individual autonomy, expressed in a fundametal belief in the individual and some kind of “egoistic” solidarity. Closely connected to this is the everyday practice that makes the existence of the movement possible. The conclusion of the study is that the use of the technology is experienced as a political act, associated by the activists to a decentralization of power and control. Therefore, any restraint of the technology is also experienced as a restraint of man’s autonomy.</p>

Gemeinsamer Workshop von Universitaetsrechenzentrum und Professur Rechnernetze und verteilte Systeme der Fakultaet fuer Informatik der TU Chemnitz. Anhand des Freenet-Projektes wird erklärt, wie anonymes Filesharing funktioniert. Der Vortrag beschreibt den Aufbau und die Funktion von Freenet und wie man Daten in Freenet einspielt bzw. wiederfinden kann. Es werden Vor und Nachteile von Freenet gegenüber anderen Projekten genannt.

This thesis explores regulatory mechanisms of managing the phenomenon of file sharing in the online environment without impeding key aspects of digital innovation, utilising a modified version of Lessig’s modalities of regulation to demonstrate significant asymmetries in various regulatory approaches. After laying the foundational legal context, the boundaries of future reform are identified as being limited by extra-jurisdictional considerations, and the regulatory direction of legal strategies to which these are related are linked with reliance on design-based regulation. The analysis of the plasticity of this regulatory form reveals fundamental vulnerabilities to the synthesis of hierarchical and architectural constraint, that illustrate the challenges faced by the regulator to date by countervailing forces. Examination of market-based influences suggests that the theoretical justification for the legal regulatory approach is not consistent with academic or policy research analysis, but the extant effect could impede openness and generational waves of innovation. A two-pronged investigation of entertainment industry-based market models indicates that the impact of file sharing could be mitigated through adaptation of the traditional model, or that informational decommodification could be harnessed through a suggested alternative model that embraces the flow of free copies. The latter model demonstrates how the interrelationships between extant network effects and sub-model externalities can be stimulated to maximise capture of revenue without recourse to disruption. The challenges of regulating community-based norms are further highlighted where the analysis submits that the prevalence of countervailing forces or push-back from the regulated act as an anti-constraint to hierarchical and design-based regulation, due to an asymmetry between legal, architectural and traditional market-based approaches, and effective control of the file sharing community. This thesis argues that file sharing can be regulated most efficaciously by addressing this asymmetry through alternative market-based strategies. This can be influenced through extending hierarchical regulation to offer alternative legal and norm-based models that complement, rather than disrupt, the community-based norms of file sharing.