Although this paper is clearly more appropriate for the USENIX Internet Technologies and Systems symposium, it was instead submitted and accepted to the USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation. The assumption here being that the issue is simply one of timing, as the paper was published in 2002 and USITS is held only during odd-numbered years. Napster had already come, hi...

With the introduction of Napster in 1999, 18-year-old Shawn Fanning showed the world the power of peer-to-peer (P2P) computing. Even though Napster did not survive, P2P continued to live on and flourish. While the focus has been on the personal use of P2P computing, businesses have started to find ways to take advantage of the P2P model in their organizations. P2P proponents forecast that busin...

New computer applications, such as the infamous “Napster” system enable the sharing of music over the Internet, with limited communication around this sharing of music. This paper discusses the use and opportunities for these music sharing technologies using interviews with users of both conventional and new music sharing technologies. The data show that music sharing is a practice that is rich...

For the last few years Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems have been used for cooperative file sharing among users. Napster was the first system that allowed the exchange of music files through the collaboration of it’s peers. P2P systems make an effective use of the widespread availability of computing and storage resources that are present over the Internet, even though temporarily. The ability to sea...

The unauthorized reproduction of sound recordings today is generally discussed only in terms of the Internet and the unprecedented ease by which digital files can be copied and transferred. In Democracy of Sound: Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright in the Twentieth Century, Alex Sayf Cummings shows that the file-sharing activities and concerns of recent decades are just the late...

The Sain t M ary ’s faculty assembly called a special meet­ ing for this Wednesday to dis­ cuss the proposed changes in the College’s mission statement. “Are you ever going to have 100 p e rc e n t of the people happy? Of course not, ” said Jell' B reese, c h a ir of the faculty assembly. “I would like, howev­ er, that everyone feels that they have been heard. ” The meeting arose because of con...

Ten years ago, the design of peer-to-peer networks was one of the hottest topics in systems research. Less so these days, but peer-to-peer networks remain practically relevant and also provide an intriguing case study of how a system evolves in response to incentive issues. The story begins in 1999, with Napster. The primary purpose of Napster was to provide a centralized and searchable directo...

Peer-to-peer systems like Napster, Gnutella and Kazaa have recently become popular for sharing information. In this paper, we show how to design peer-to-peer systems within the action systems framework by combining UML diagrams. We present our approach via a case study of stepwise development of a Gnutella-like peer-to-peer system.

Despite the demise of Napster, online file sharing tools are only growing more and more popular, aided by the increasing number of Internet users who have broadband connections and the increasing level of sophistication of those users. Setting aside the debates over the ethics of file sharing and where to draw the line on copyright protection, we can assert that these tools can be real problems...

Once upon a time there was a struggling young California band. Its music was too loud and its image too unpolished for MTV. Its social and political messages were a little too disturbing for radio. But it built a passionate following among underground-rock fans by touring relentlessly, staying true to its message and encouraging fans to record its live shows and distribute bootlegged tapes as w...