Peer-to-peer file sharing is the distribution and sharing of digital documents and computer files using the technology of peer-to-peer networking. P2P file sharing allows users to access media files such as books, music, movies, and games using a specialized P2P software program that searches for other connected computers on a P2P network and locates the desired content. The nodes of such networks are end-user computer systems that are interconnected via the Internet. The first generation of such P2P systems was Napster, a central server-based model that was eventually forced to shut down due to copyright infringement issues. The second generation of P2P software is Gnutella and Kazaa, which are user-based models. BitTorrent, representing the third generation, created a new network for every set of files, instead of trying to create one large network of files using SuperNodes, web caches or servers. In Japan, Winny—based on Freenet—was perhaps the first and most well known. Several factors contributed to the widespread adoption and facilitation of peer-to-peer file sharing. These included increasing Internet bandwidth, the widespread digitization of physical media, and the increasing capabilities of residential personal computers. Users were able to transfer either one or more files from one computer to another across the Internet through various file transfer systems and other file-sharing networks. Wikipedia [ - ]

Peer-to-peer file sharing is the distribution and sharing of digital documents and computer... [ + ]