Difference between Theft, Software Copyright Infringement, File Sharing and Piracy

Replies

• 

  silverscorpion

  Re: Difference between Theft, Software Copyright Infringement, File Sharing and Pirac
  
  well, what to say..
  
  It's said that more than a fourth of the total traffic in the internet is generated by file sharing and P2P sharing sites. I personally haven't used any P2P client up until now.
  It's also not fair to use these sites, because, apart from the copy right infringement issues and piracy, there's another issue which I would like to highlight as a communications engineers.
  
  The protocols governing the internet traffic, namely TCP/IP, allocates resources to each user based on the demand. So, a P2P user will naturally get more bandwidth than the regular casual internet users. In some special cases, heavy net users like P2P users will also experience a speed that's higher than the promised maximum by the ISP provider, while normal users like those who use it only for e mails and the like, will always get speeds lower than the maximum. Although it's enough for the tasks they do, and they hardly notice the low speed, it should be noted that the file sharing clients are using bandwidth paid for by some others, and those who paid for it uses only a portion of it.
  
  I'm not sure if I have made my point clear, but I'd like to say please refrain from file sharing and peer to peer sharing. That's all. This is my opinion, and mine only..
• 

  suyash

  Re: Difference between Theft, Software Copyright Infringement, File Sharing and Pirac
  
  

  silverscorpion

  The protocols governing the internet traffic, namely TCP/IP, allocates resources to each user based on the demand. So, a P2P user will naturally get more bandwidth than the regular casual internet users. In some special cases, heavy net users like P2P users will also experience a speed that's higher than the promised maximum by the ISP provider, while normal users like those who use it only for e mails and the like, will always get speeds lower than the maximum.

  Hi AgScorpion,
  
  That's something that was unheard of for me till now. Can you please elaborate, not in detail but at least for the benefit of a common man (read, non electronics / communications engineers... hehe...) as to how exactly does p2p / file sharing clients steal the network speed from regular users ?? 😔
  
  Sorry for being naive if this is a very well known fact, but I always thought that the speed we, or for the matter of fact anyone gets, is always determined by the max bandwidth set by the ISP and that we always get a certain fraction of it and never more than it...
  
  Also, what I intended to show with the above post was that today, there really are some gross misconceptions floating around as to the difference between file sharing and copyright infringement... 😎
  
  Btw, this one is for all, can we compare sharing a music cd with friends as the same as sharing a book / novel with friends and then label both as differently ? I mean, what the heck, as long as you are not selling the item, it's not really any infringement or looting on seas case... hehe
• 

  silverscorpion

  Re: Difference between Theft, Software Copyright Infringement, File Sharing and Pirac
  
  well, dont worry, it's not a very well known fact. In fact, I came to know about this barely about a month ago, when I was going through a research paper.
  
  And as for the explanation, this is due to the nature of bandwidth allocation followed by the provider. The protocol allocates bandwidth(BW) to a user proportional to the load he puts on the server.
  
  That is, a casual browser who flips through his mail and just does some random sirfing may not put a heavy load on the server. Then the server provides enough BW to sustain his load.
  
  But when a p2p user downloads some movies or some other huge data, large chunks of data has to be transferred and that needs the use of large BW. ie, when the demand or the load on the server is large, it allocates a proportional amount of BW to that user.
  
  Point to be noted is that, the additional BW comes from the excess BW that was left unused by the normal user. Also, only few users will be online at any given time. The network will rarely be fully loaded. Those additional resources are also used for them.
  
  So, when everything works out, a heavy user may even get higher data rates than what was pormised as the maximum. Now you know the reason for this I hope..
  
  I explained it as best as I could. I hope I'm clear.
  Cheers!😀
• 

  silverscorpion

  Re: Difference between Theft, Software Copyright Infringement, File Sharing and Pirac
  
  aah, I didnt notice it first..
  You have called me as Agscorpion.
  Hell, I first thought it was a mistake. And then I remembered my chemistry..
  Well, it's cool.. Thanks..
  
  And sorry for bombarding you with my technical jargon. Also, sorry for veering away from the topic. I just posted what I thought about these issues.
  
  Sure, these issues are confused and are interpreted differently ever so often. Something must be done to quantize these terms like piracy and remove ambiguity.
• 

  silverscorpion

  Re: Difference between Theft, Software Copyright Infringement, File Sharing and Pirac
  
  aah, I didnt notice it first..
  You have called me as Agscorpion.
  Hell, I first thought it was a mistake. And then I remembered my chemistry..
  Well, it's cool.. Thanks..
  
  And sorry for bombarding you with my technical jargon. Also, sorry for veering away from the topic. I just posted what I thought about these issues.
  
  Sure, these issues are confused and are interpreted differently ever so often. Something must be done to quantize these terms like piracy and remove ambiguity.
• 

  suyash

  Re: Difference between Theft, Software Copyright Infringement, File Sharing and Pirac
  
  @ AgScorpion,
  
  I was not aware of this dynamic allocation of bandwidth resources by the ISP's to the internet users according to their usage pattern !! But something inside me tells that this is really wrong thing to do. It's like an extreme example of communism !! (give everyone exactly how much he needs ... Hehe... )
  
  And yes, the main purpose of this thread was to discuss - Difference between Theft, Software Copyright Infringement, File Sharing and Piracy
  which so far no one has initiated !! 😔
• 

  suyash

  Re: Difference between Theft, Software Copyright Infringement, File Sharing and Pirac
  
  

  silverscorpion

  aah, I didnt notice it first..
  You have called me as Agscorpion.
  Hell, I first thought it was a mistake. And then I remembered my chemistry..
  Well, it's cool.. Thanks..

  It saves me the effort of typing 4 less characters 😎
  And being a materials engineer, I need to show the world I still remember stuff... hehe 😁
  would like to continue to do this mistake forever on CE if you don't mind !!
• 

  silverscorpion

  Re: Difference between Theft, Software Copyright Infringement, File Sharing and Pirac
  
  I don't mind at all..
  Cheers😀
• 

  Ashraf HZ

  Re: Difference between Theft, Software Copyright Infringement, File Sharing and Pirac
  
  Piracy sucks. Its the main cause of my slow net problems. Damn leechers...
  
  *grin*
• 

  jarniel

  Re: Difference between Theft, Software Copyright Infringement, File Sharing and Pirac
  
  This is my personal opinion, For the
  THEFT:
  Make it safe that no one can got
  
  COPYRIGHTED:
  Don't make something that can copyright the original. Why they are producing a gadget that can copyright
  
  FILESHARING:
  Is this bad to share a file
  
  PIRACY:
  How about if there's a good opportunity for you, that they need your ability
  
  very simple,just my opinion..think about it...
  
  cheers...