P2P

File sharing is when you distribute or share content over the internet.  P2P file sharing is similar where  a person shares their files over the internet and others can view and download the file. P2P sharing is like downloading a torrent from one of the torrenting sites. You visit the site and pick out what you want to download and when you click the link it connects you with someone already sharing the file. When both of you are connect it starts transferring the file and when its done it'll start the process of allowing your computer to share that file with other people who are also downloading that file. The more that people share the faster the download is and the more people who get to view it.

There are legal issues with this because media producers such as television and record companies view this as stealing their content. They want new people to buy their product because it makes them more money and they believe that other people are making money off their product. However in truth the act of sharing brings more attention to the content. In one case there was a musician who released an album for free for everyone to download and only asked people for donations if they wanted to. After some time the amount of money that was received was greater than the money they had made on their last album.

Another example would be with the film "Steal this film" which was made to be purposely distributed on P2P sites as an experiment to see whether or not using P2P sites would gain the film more attention. The film itself was downloaded two million times in eighteen months and more than three million viewers. The film received more exposure than it would have ever got and since it is still around people are still downloading and donating money because they enjoyed it. It is still illegal to use P2P sites to download media but in my opinion if they would use the sites to their advantage they have the potential to make more money than they would have.




Sources:

https://econsultancy.com/nma-archive/56421-content-producers-should-take-advantage-of-p2p-not-fear-it