Blog Post #4

• The first term that I searched on Wikipedia was "peer-to-peer file sharing". What was interesting about the Wikipedia page with the same title were the neutrality warnings, the suggested "clean-up" of this article, and it said how the article "may not accurately summarize its content". The neutrality portion is interesting because there is so much controversy over peer to peer file sharing that a Wikipedia page, which usually tends to be completely neutral and only presents facts, has a warning that the article may not be "neutral". What I also found interesting is that the page says it has a "legal aspects" portion, but that portion of the article is only a link to another Wikipedia page entitled "legal aspects of file sharing". This article is interestingly much longer than the original page. It goes through cases and standards on P2P file sharing in several countries, including our own and it is much more thorough than any of the other countries' sections. The end of the section on US laws and litigation sites some fairly recent cases, suggesting that this issue is still current. Down at the bottom of the article in the "See Also" section there is a link to a "Timeling of file sharing". 
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• Returning to the original article, "Peer-to-peer file sharing", the section on "Economic impact" stands out because it is because of this impact that the controversy over P2P file sharing arises. Billions of dollars have been lost in the music industry especially because of P2P file sharing. Many big name artists speak out against it, but they aren't the ones who needs that money. Emerging artists that are struggling have a harsh barrier to cross to make it. In the "See Also" section of the article there is a link to an article entitled "Trade group efforts against file sharing". The article goes in depth explaining the efforts the music industry is making to prevent copyright infringement, with "Actions against Internet service providers",  "Actions against file sharing services", and "Lawsuits against individuals". Several record labels are cited as well as many cases debating copyright infringement in P2P file sharing. 
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• One aspect of P2P file sharing that is sometimes overlooked because of the heated controversy are the "Risks" of file sharing. Because of the high number of people who use these file sharing networks, individuals assume they won't be the one to catch that virus or be infected with spyware. Issues like identity theft are even a serious concern in P2P file sharing. Privacy in the often shady world of file sharing is difficult to truly achieve because of the often illegal nature of file sharing.