Piracy is, of course, a fairly tough word to define. Pinoy Technology Review (PTR) defines piracy as the unauthorized use of copyrighted material in a manner that violates the original copyright owner's rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works that build upon it. Under this definition, and using my (grossly) underutilized legal skills, TV shows which air on public TV would not qualify. If, for example, I wanted to see episodes of the TV show Grey's Anatomy, which airs on Studio23 (free TV) anyway, I'd be well within my rights to get it online for private viewing only.
Of course, the guys at ABC would almost certainly disagree with me.
At any rate, I would never endorse the illegal downloading of movies, software, or music. Of course, I do borrow these things from good friends. That's not considered illegal, I believe. Does it really matter if these good friends live in other countries very far away? Or if I only see them online? Friendship, I believe, has no boundaries, actual or virtual.
What does the average Pinoy need to know about software piracy? It's always been my policy to know the enemy. That way, you will know best how to combat it.
- Bandwidth - Defined as the amount of information downloadable from any webserver over a prescribed period of time, it defines how quickly your download will complete. This is governed by the capacity of the downloader as well as the source. Broadband ISP's normally quote differences in rates according to the bandwidth of the plan. Higher bandwidth = Greater speed = Higher price.
- P2P Network - Expanded as peer-to-peer network, it is defined as a network that relies primarily on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively low number of servers. In simple terms, you're connected to a huge network with no single central node. Think Friendster, but real online connections, not pages.
- P2P Client - Typically a piece of software that provides connectivity to a specific P2P network. The most popular of these is Limewire, which allows the exchange of almost any piece of digital content as long as a member of the network provides this same content to another member willingly.
- Seeder - This online slang term refers to the various sources of the files available for download. Potentially, anyone with a copy of the content can be a seeder; all it takes is a willingness to leave your computer and internet connection on for very long periods of time. Seeders (or seeds, for short) are also critical in evaluating how quickly a particular piece of content will download. The greater the number of seeds, the faster your download will complete.
- Leecher - This derogatory term refers to the people who basically grab content without giving anything back to the community. This term is usually tagged on people who don't share content (if on a P2P network) or don't share bandwidth (if on a Bittorrent network, see below). Remember that the internet is a community and becoming an outcast of this community is VERY BAD.
- Peers - This is a slightly less derogatory term more commonly used in the world of bittorrent (see below). This refers to, basically, leechers who also act as seeders. Peers are cool as long as they become seeders when the time is right. Peers who become leechers have basically gone over to the dark side.
- Bittorrent - The new buzzword of the downloading community and the bane of entertainment companies worldwide, this innovative variant of the standard P2P network allows the exchange of large files or sets of files (scale can be in gigabytes, not megabytes) by breaking them down into manageable bits. These bits are then sourced from different peers within the network. As soon as a particular bit is downloaded, the user becomes a fellow peer who acts as a source of that bit to another downloader. This ever-expanding tree enables downloads to reach almost 1 megabyte per second in speed. The mainline software, as originally developed & updated by Bram Cohen, for this is available here.
- Bittorrent Client - Similar to a P2P client, this software enables access to, and use of, the bittorrent technology. Popular bittorrent clients include Azureus, BitLord, and Bittornado.
- Bittorrent Sites - These are websites which provide the bittorrent addresses for downloading of specific files. Although many of them have been shut down (suprnova was the most famous one), many continue to defy the law and domicile themselves in countries where the law is murky at best. A quick Google search will turn any number of these sites up. Remember, you are responsible for which files you download so be careful.
Cheers!
