P2P - From Internet Scourge to Savior

microbrewer writes "The MIT Technology Review has up a feature discussing the future of p2p networks. Specifically, they look at their role in content distribution, in the age of ubiquitous video services. Soon, the article asserts, the very same p2p-style networks that 'threatened' legitimate business may be the basis for most video-on-demand services." From the article: "So how could additional P2P traffic actually be a good thing for the Internet? Carnegie Mellon's Zhang points out that because peer-to-peer networks exploit both the downlink and uplink capacities of users' Internet connections, they distribute content more efficiently than centralized 'unicast' technologies. Zhang also says it should be possible to label P2P traffic so that service providers can track it and decide how much of it to allow through their networks. He and colleagues from the University of California at Berkeley have founded a startup, Rinera, to develop software that will give service providers such control."

Comments

Re:Legal Use of technology

[Digital Vomit]

P2P isn't illegal, using it for stealing is...

I thought P2P was an internet technology? Is there some other thing called "P2P" that can be used to actually steal things? Is it like a crowbar you can use to smash windows or something?

P2P doesn't steal files, users do

I didn't realize a lot of computer users were kleptomaniacs with overgrown nails. Files are cheap; why would anyone need to steal one? Or do you mean a wood file? Those might be more expensive, I suppose.