FEATURE FILE SHARING ▲

Sharing files across the Net needn’t be a legal minefield.Find out how you can get social online and share your files with trusted contacts

Personal file sharing

The Internet opened up a whole

new world to those of us who use

computers, giving us access to a

wide range of information without

having to move away our desks. But that

was only the start of the revolution, the

rapid spread of high-speed, always

active broadband connections has

meant that it’s now possible to share all

sorts of stuff from photos and videos to

sound recordings and diary entries.

There’s a whole world of material

available and it’s only a few clicks away.

Like anything else you can do on the

Internet, file sharing requires that you

exercise care, and a sizeable helping of

common sense, if you’re to stay safe.

“These applications enable you to share selected data with trusted contacts”

The precautions of having a firewall and

an antivirus program installed are

important for any Internet activity.

You’ll no doubt be aware too that there

are legality issues attached to sharing

files too, and we’ll deal with those in

more detail shortly.

The part of file sharing that you’ll

have heard of – because it tends to get

a bad press over illegal swapping of

copyright material – is peer-to-peer

(P2P) networking, where a group of

computers talk directly to one another

without going via a server. However, this

only represents part of the story.

When it comes to sharing your own

files with other people across the Web,

it’s unlikely you’ll want to open them up

to all and sundry. In these situations,

personal file-sharing tools are a much

better solution. These applications

enable you to share selected data with

trusted contacts, without needing to

email it or make it available on an FTP

server. If you do want to share files with

the world, there are plenty of websites

to help you do so, many of which offer

you these services for free.

Over the course of this feature we’ll

take a look at the history of file sharing,

and how it’s developed from a legally

dubious minority activity to a sociable

pastime that everyone can enjoy. LLuukkee WWhhiittttaakkeerr

www.pc-utilities.co.uk issue 90 20

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FILE SHARING ▲

FEATURE

Your online hard drive One of the difficulties of sharing files directly from your PC is that your system needs to be on and connected to the Net in order for the data to be accessible.OmniDrive sidesteps this limitation by enabling you to store selected files online as easily as using a local drive on your PC.Once you’ve installed the application and registered with the service, you’ll be able to access your OmniDrive from within your browser or via My Computer.Files can be uploaded to or downloaded from your OmniDrive with ease,and by rightclicking on any file you can opt to share it with any contact. You can even grant them the option to edit the file too, should you wish.Because your files are stored on the Net, contacts will be able to access your shared files whenever they like. The free version of the software provides each user with 1GB of online storage space and a bandwidth limit of 5GB per month.If you find you need more space,prices begin at US$40 for a one-year’s subscription at 10GB.

Bands often make new material available to fans via sites like MySpace▲

Why share files? There are lots of reasons for wanting to

share files with others over the Net. At

its simplest level you might want to let

friends and family see your holiday

snaps or home videos. Alternatively you

may have produced some artistic work

you want to expose to a wider audience.

The impact of file sharing is even

beginning to change the way the world

works. Bands now often make material

available for fans to preview via sites

like MySpace (wwwwww..mmyyssppaaccee..ccoomm). This

means artists can build up a significant

following long before they’re even

signed up to a record label.

The practice of sharing files has also led

to a new openness among some content

providers, with material being made

available under licences such as Creative

Commons (wwwwww..ccrreeaattiivvee ccoommmmoonnss..oorrgg).

These are more flexible and impose fewer

restrictions than conventional copyright

agreements thus allowing a more free

exchange of material.

Similarly audio material from radio

stations and the like is increasingly

being made available as podcasts that

you can download to listen to on your

PC or on a portable player.

Is it legal? Although file sharing is a legal

technology with many legitimate uses,

there are people who use it to exchange

copyright material without appropriate

permissions. This is especially true with

music files, the swapping of which drove

the file-sharing boom to begin with.

Large-scale sharing of copyright music

has led to something of a backlash, with

record industry bodies taking legal

action against the biggest offenders.

In the majority of countries sharing

copyright material, or even copying it

for personal use, is illegal. The exception

is Canada, which taxes blank media and

MP3 players in order to compensate

copyright holders. Several people in the

UK have been successfully prosecuted

by the British Phonographic Industry

(BPI) for making copyright material

available online. Many others have

settled out of court since the BPI began

launching legal action in 2004. The BPI

chairman has said that illegal music

swappers are, “stealing the future of

artists and the people who invest in

them”. Visit the BPI website (wwwwww..bbppii.. ccoo..uukk) for useful information on file

sharing, including a guide for parents.

In the USA, the Recording Industry

Association of America (RIAA) has so far

taken legal action against hundreds of

file sharers. These moves have led to

some former P2P file-sharing networks

such as Napster (wwwwww..nnaappsstteerr..ccoomm)

being transformed into legal, paid-for

download services, and others such as

iMesh (wwwwww..iimmeesshh..ccoomm) agreeing to build

machinery to block the sharing of

AllPeers enables you to share selected files with contacts from within Firefox ▲

OmniDrive acts like an online hard drive and can be used to share files with contacts ▲

copyright material into their software.

The Motion Picture Association of

America (MPAA) has also begun to take

action against people sharing movie files.

When using peer-to-peer or BitTorrent

networks it’s your responsibility to

ensure the material you’re sharing is not

copyrighted. In most cases file-sharing

networks are not anonymous and

information about your computer’s IP

address and the files you’ve downloaded

can be traced back to you.

Personal file-sharing tools Traditional file-sharing programs – if a

relatively recently created technology

can be considered traditional – are

focussed on helping users to find desired

content, regardless of who happens to be

sharing them. When you want to share

files on your computer with a friend,

family member or business contact

across the Net, file-sharing networks are

not the best way to go.

If you only have one or two small

files you wish to share, sending them

via email is a perfectly viable option.

Few contacts will thank you for

assaulting their inboxes with dozens of

issue 90 www.pc-utilities.co.uk 21

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