It’s interesting to note that technology news headlines carry out extreme cases of Peer-to-Peer, better known as P2P. But first, what is P2P? It is the technology that allows multiple users to share files with one another without the need for a central server. It’s the technique that many use to illegally download songs, movies, software, e-books and files over the internet. Remember Napster?
Now, let’s quickly touch on the two headlines. The first headline says that Japan will cut internet to people who illegally download music and movies. The second headline talks about Verizon coming out with a legitimate use of P2P technology.
Both these are interesting stories to follow because eventually India will follow suit. Currently, broadband in India is a trickle compared with Japan. India’s average broadband speed is 256 Kbps (0.2 Mbps) while Japan’s is 100 Mbps. Because internet is slow in India, it’s less of an incentive for internet users to leech movies or music off the net. Let’s look at the quick statistic. An average Tamil or Bollywood movie will be about 1000 MB and would take approximately 15 to 20 hours to download. Not a great incentive. If you were in Japan, you could download the same movie in less than 20 minutes.
That’s where Japan’s problem lies. The internet leechers clog Japan’s pipes and the internet service providers are losing out in terms of business because most connections are fixed monthly costs but some over use their connection. The four big associations in Japan have come together to ban people off the net it found guilty of excessive usage of P2P. Yesterday, Iceland came up with a similar rule. Verizon, a tech firm has now come with a solution that will allow companies to legitimately use P2P technology. They say that P2P is like a two edged knife. While it can be misused by people, it can also be used effectively by corporate to speed data exchange while simultaneously reducing costs. Verizon states that if ISP’s collaborated with file software provide, the download speeds can be improved by over 60 percent.
