Reliable P2P Content Delivery for Alternative Business Models_v6a_CameraReady

The production, distribution and consumption of information goods have evolved through continuous disruptions, such as the invention of the printing press. Presently, these activities are being disrupted by the Internet and digital technology revolutions, which are triggering a paradigm change in this field. P2P content delivery is included in the disrupting factors. It has endured an explosive development in the non-commercial sector. Commercial content delivering entities reacted slowly to these changes, but have also begun to employ P2P technology. This employment, however, has been hesitant and its results unremarkable. Also, commercial initiatives which employ this technology have frequently been economically unsuccessful. In this paper, we argue that these two realities are interconnected. We present and analyze the current P2P content delivery scenario (commercial and otherwise). Based on previously developed work, we expose the cause, of P2P’s lack of success in the commercial sector, as techno-economical, rather than just technical, as it is intimately connected to the enforced business models. Finally we present our solution for a reliable commercial P2P content delivery, and embody it in the definition of an exemplifying P2P system (under implementation), that provides the necessary support for business models, adequate for on-line operation.