Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Networks

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Networks

Alex Burns

Senior Researcher, Smart Internet Technology CRC

Dated 7 September 2005 P2P Networks Slide 2

Overview

• History

• What are Peer-to-Peer (p2p) networks?

• Social Implications (Spar and Vaidhyanathan)

• Napster, BitTorrent, and Hyperdistribution

• Case Studies

Part 1: P2P Technology


History

• Internet infrastructure was a precursor to Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and distributed computing principles

• P2P applied in industry applications (e-health and science)

• Became prominent in late 1990s across college campuses

• Illegal file-sharing as ‘killer app’ (Napster, Grokster, Kazaa)

• Has relationship with multimedia file formats

• Has coevolved with Digital Culture


P2P Networks

• Replaced the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Gopher

• Differs from centralised Client-Server architecture

• With P2P, each computer is both a server for remote users and a client to download files (Jason Whittaker)

• Allows users to run programs that turn their computers into servers on a distributed network

• SETI@Home introduced many netizens to pseudo-P2P ideas

• Taps into Metcalfe’s Law and Reed’s Law (exponential value of more users and the power of distributed groups)


Vaidhyanathan’s P2P Criteria

• Siva Vaidhyanathan defines ‘distributed’ P2P systems as:

• ‘End-to-end’ design: involves a PC or person as end-point

• ‘Decentralised’: Resources spread out, can flow through system

• ‘Anti-authoritarian’: Not subject to ‘command-and-control’ structures, developed by hackers, mavens, and pioneers

• ‘Difficult to manage’: Removing content and users is impossible

• ‘Extensible’: Open access to many, node structure, work via protocols, comparable to diaspora population

Part 2: Legal and Social Implications


Implications 1: Debora Spar

• Harvard Business School professor

• Author of Riding The Waves (2003)

• Neo-Marxist model of technological diffusion into society

• Suggests the ‘Technological Frontier’ has political battles

• How commerce and politics ‘cross-impact’ on innovation

• Case studies on radio, digital television, the Microsoft antitrust suit, and Internet file-sharing services

• ‘Why rules get established along the technological frontier, and who plays the greatest role in their creation’


Phase 1: Innovation

• ‘The sexiest phase along the technological frontier’

• Tinkerers, inventors, and discoverers

• Visionaries and Early Adopters (Geoffrey Moore)

• Small and specialised groups, non-commercial use

• Research labs and technology consortiums

• ‘No rules because none is needed’

• Government regulation still possible at early phase

• ‘In many ways the most peaceful . . . Often ends abruptly’


Phase 2: Commercialisation

• ‘The defining moment of the frontier economy’

• Libertarian politics as the norm

• Pioneers, Pirates, Marshals, Outlaws, Dotcom Entrepreneurs

• Focus on Venture Capitalists and prototype-to-market

• Depicted in Jehane Noujaim’s film Startup.com (2001)

• Shift to early mainstream in pursuit of profits (Geoffrey Moore)

• ‘During these times of technological flux, the rules are just too flimsy’

• Cryptography and hacker debate in ‘arms race’ with regulators (Kevin Mitnick, Philip Zimmerman, Bruce Schneier)


Phase 3: Creative Anarchy

• ‘Creative anarchy is the most frustrating stage’

• Chaos Rules school emerges as significant barrier

• ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ scenario

• Shift from libertarian politics to laissez-faire markets

• Standards coordination and ‘hypercompetition’ as problems

• Legal battles over Intellectual Property rights and ownership

• Early pioneers are outwitted by entrepreneurs

• Technology maturity: diffusion pressure for mainstream

• ‘Digital Natives’ create enclaves to survive


Phase 4: Rules

• ‘Rules get created because private firms want them’

• Initiative may come from companies, nation-state, groups

• Embed politics in markets: access, power, social norms

• Shift from firms to self-regulation or government intervention

• Government involvement necessary to enforce rules

• Professional groups for codifying international standards

• Firms ‘use the state to preserve its own commercial empire’

• U.S. DoJ v Microsoft antitrust suit

• Napster, Grokster, and Kazaa court rulings


• Associate Professor at New York University

• Author of The Anarchist In The Library (2004)

• Influenced by political philosopher Robert Nozick

• Coevolutionary model of technology and users

• Interested in ‘the ideology of P2P’ (Jack M. Balkin)

• P2P as ‘alternative future’ to Dotcom-era visions

• Posits an ‘access versus ownership’ debate

• Warns of ‘bleed-through’ when online debates have serious ‘offline’ implications (legal precedents, social norms)

Implications 2: Siva Vaidhyanathan


Vaidhyanathan’s P2P Critique

• Tension between hypercapitalism and knowledge creation

• Challenges ‘artificial scarcity’

• Encourages ‘inconspicuous consumption’ and ‘conspicuous production’

• Distinction between P2P use and real piracy

• Transborder networks may harness creativity and global flows

• P2P like any other technology alters our online environment

• Is contract law obsolete or misplaced?

• What do the industry debates reveal about P2P ethics?


Napster

• Created by Shawn Fanning in 1999

• Touted as ‘disruptive’ technology (Clayton M. Christensen)

• ‘Jukebox in the Sky’ fears for music industry

• Counter-attack spearheaded by Metallica’s Lars Ulrich

• 26.4 million users in February 2001

• Ninth Court Circuit injunction on 5 March 2001

• Acquired by Roxio Inc. and used to rebrand PressPlay service as Napster 2.0 subscription service


• ‘Napsterisation’ touted as business model by press

• Scrutiny of music industry ‘standard operating procedures’

• Second generation services: Grokster, Kazaa

• Led to BitTorrent as a true P2P alternative

• Established MP3 as a major audio file format (standards)

• Helped to create market for Apple iPod player

• Impact on digital and mobile phone cultures

• Wired Magazine promotes ‘remix cultures’ (2005)

Napster Outcomes


BitTorrent

• Created by programmer Bram Cohen in 2002

• A P2P distribution protocol and client application

• ‘Seeds’ files into distributed ‘packets’ over many computers

• Additional ‘seeds’ creates more bandwidth

• Client software such as Azureus

• Accounts for 20-30% of total broadband traffic (estimates)

• Attempts to shutdown major ‘Torrent’ sites

• Popularised anime and manga in West


Hyperdistribution

• Coined by VRML creator Mark Pesce

• Relevant to Negroponte’s ‘atoms’ versus ‘bits’

• BitTorrent-enabled content distribution

• ‘Disruptive’ to traditional media distribution practices

• Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who cases

• Opportunities for ‘indie’ distribution

• Avoids institutional bottlenecks and gridlock

• ‘The Napsterization of Everything’ (Mary Hodder)

• Blogs + P2P Democracy (Howard Dean’s PR maven Joe Trippi)


Recent P2P Rulings

• MGM v Grokster and Streamcast Technologies (27 June 2005)

• Involved 28 entertainment companies as litigants• Electronic Freedom Foundation defended Grokster and Streamcast• P2P software manufacturers liable for infringing users• Clarification on 1984 Sony Betamax case• Inducement theory of copyright liability (new precedent)• Risk that manufacturers have to modify technologies for Hollywood

• Universal Music v Sharman Networks (5 September 2005)

• Orders Kazaa to implement software provisions immediately• Kazaa must use filters to prevent searches for illegal software• Avoided the Trade Practices Act statutes• Kazaa likely to appeal to High Court of Australia


Michael Geist’s P2P Myths

• University of Ottawa’s Michael Geist offers P2P Myths:

• Music industry is suffering financial losses• This is directly attributable to illegal file-sharing using P2P• Losses have impacted on commercial artists and musicians

• Accurate downloading figures are difficult to determine

• Challenge to over-priced CD format and Wal Mart retail

• Decline may reflect broader economic concessions

• Music industry fails to deal with artist contracts and royalties

• P2P presents an opportunity for independent companies


P2P and Internet Futures

• ‘P2P Civilization’ meme (Integral theorist Michel Bauwens)

• Influenced by Catholic theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and his writings on the ‘noosphere’: The Phenomenon of Man (1956) and The Future of Man (1959)

• Internet Futures: ‘P2P Civilization’ meme (Michel Bauwens) and the ‘noosphere’ (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin)

• Teilhard de Chardin later interpreted by techno-futurists as ‘mystical McLuhan’

• P2P as technological infrastructure for Global Brain consciousness (Peter Russell, Willis Harman, Howard Bloom, Robert Wright)

Part 3: Case Studies


P2P and Digital Homes

• Rich Media school of thought

• Digital Hollywood’s preferred vision

• P2P integrated with new Broadband-enabled entertainment console (Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3)

• ‘Always connected, always personalized, and always in high-definition’ (Microsoft, GDCA, 2005)

• Broader gamer demographics than ‘youthful’ stereotype


Digital Television Content

• SciFi Network’s Battlestar Galactica mini-series (2003) was distributed by U.K. fans on BitTorrent before its U.S. screening

• SciFi Network developed ancillary content for digital television viewers

• Visionaries/Early Adopters used ‘viral marketing’ to promote the program

• Synergies between P2P use and Digital Culture fandom

• Producers forced to release first episodes of Battlestar Galactica series online


Outfoxed (2004)

• Robert Greenwald’s Outfoxed (2004) critiques Fox Networks’ news bias. Outfoxed book released in 2005 by Alexandra Kitty.

• Used web communities to tape and analyse one month of Fox’s broadcasts (P2P and social networks)

• DVD and theatrical distribution avoided distribution problems: inspired by P2P strategies

• Greenwald has released his interview footage under a Creative Commons license for remixing/sampling (Open Source)

• New documentary Wal Mart: The High Cost Of Low Price (November 2005) leverages P2P during production and post-production


P2P Collaborative Research

• Center For Cooperative Research (www.cooperativeresearch.org)

• ‘Collaborative investigations at grassroots level’

• ‘Open-content model for public historical record’

• Critiques the 9/11 Commission Report using official documents + agenda-setting news sources

• Paul Thompson’s Terror Timeline (2004)

• New projects: Iraq and Iran Timelines

• Public collaboration model inspired by ‘P2P Ideology’: critique of elite media strategies

• Impact on information acquisition and production


The Power Of Nightmares (2004)

• Controversial 9/11 historiography documentary by BBC producer Adam Curtis

• Refused distribution in United States and other major territories

• Australian television broadcast by SBS delayed due to London bombings on 7 July 2005

• Low-resolution ‘bootleg’ copy released online by InformationClearinghouse.info

• BitTorrent and Archive.org distribute copies obtained from BBC digital television broadcasts

• Grand Prix competition at 2005 Cannes Film Festival

• Pathe negotiates theatrical release for 2 ½ hour cut


Nine Inch Nails: ‘Only’ (2005)

• Single (2005) by industrial band Nine Inch Nails

• Trent Reznor released master multitrack sessions in 4 formats (incl. ProTools, GarageBand, and Acid) programs

• Enables fans to remix single into different versions: ‘conspicuous production’ (Vaidhyanathan)

• Example of using pseudo-P2P for ‘User-led Innovation’ (Eric von Hippel)

• Pseudo-P2P used as ‘Sustaining’ technology to thwart illegal downloads and engage with fans

Documents

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Networks