File Sharing Speech

[DirtyDan]

Hey, i was wondering if you guys could help me out with my english speech haha. Its supposed to be a persuasive speech, around 4-6 minutes with a visual representation, a story, and a quote relating to the topic. I figured file sharing would be a good topic, but i dont have anything at the moment. I want to be pro, but that makes my visuals more limited as i would probably be talking more statistic of how the RIAA is wasting their time and money; if i went against it, i could bring in a clip of a movie that just came out recently from bittorrent or something. Personally im pro o' course, but in this case it doesnt really matter im just looking for what will be most effective. Does anyone have any good points either way, that are not to debatable? (as in non-opinionated mostly straightforward fact stuff... Opinons are good too, but in this case i need alot of backup) Any thoughts are appreciated, we start the speeches tomorrow but i probably wont go until the day after. Thanks in advance

BTW should this be in talk club? sorry

[sArA]

"Social behaviour, incentives and technology in peer-to-peer content distribution networks"

Stephanos Androutsellis-Theotokis
Ethicomp2004, University of the Aegean, Syros Greece 14-16th April

Distributed computer architectures labelled ``peer-to-peer'' are designed for the sharing of computer resources (content, storage, CPU cycles) by direct exchange, rather than requiring the intermediation or support of a centralized server or authority. Content distribution is the dominant peer-to-peer application on the Internet, allowing personal computers to function in a coordinated manner as a distributed storage medium by contributing, searching and exchanging digital content.

A decentralized peer-to-peer content distribution network can be thought of as a community of users, not unlike any other social group of people with common interests or functions. In our case, each member of this community has two goals: A "personal" goal, which is to benefit the most from the services the community can provide for them (in our case by obtaining the most desired digital content at the lowest "cost"), and a "global" goal, which is to help the entire community to continue existing, prosper and proliferate, in part through the services they can provide to the other members (in our case the content, storage and bandwidth they own or control

These two goals are often conflicting and, in the absence of any centralized authority, control or enforced rules, they govern the social behaviour of each member and ultimately of the entire community. The general rule (and paradox) here is that universal cooperation by all members is best for the overall good of the community, however if no specific incentives are enforced, the users who directly benefit the most are those who take advantage of the content provided by others without contributing anything themselves. The "prisoner's dilemma" metaphor can be used to study the extent to which the owners of intellectual property are willing to share with others.

In the on-line content distribution community described above, one is afforded the opportunity to actively interfere by introducing and applying a variety of incentive mechanisms, to enforce a more collective behaviour and eliminate the "freerider" effect. We introduce and discuss the categories of incentive mechanisms that can be (and have been) used, the technologies on which they are based and ultimately the cost associated with such measures.

We proceed to focus our discussion on the issue of reputation mechanisms, which attempt to be technological solutions to the problem of controlling social behaviour in peer-to-peer content distribution networks, by ensuring that users with poor social behaviour will be less privileged and will have fewer rights than users who work more towards the common good. The two main problems these mechanisms are faced with in their application to peer-to-peer architectures is the lack of fixed identification for the users and the lack of a history of repeated interactions between users due to the typically large sizes of the networks. We discuss various reputation mechanisms, their related advantages and costs, and the way in which incentive mechanisms can be based on the private or shared history of users which is assembled by the reputation mechanisms. We finally examine in more detail the particular issue of anonymity, which presents an interesting "inverse incentive" mechanism for single users as, in order for their anonymity to be protected, they need to ensure that large crowds are maintained and operate within the content distribution network. They are therefore inherently motivated to work for the "global good", since it will directly reflect on themselves by offering improved anonymity.

We conclude our arguments by reversing our metaphor, briefly comparing the "virtual" file sharing community of our discussions to a "real" social group of people, and discussing how corresponding incentive and reputation mechanisms work in the second.



This is an abstract you might find interesting regarding P2P. If you use it, please cite it the reference is at the top.

[DirtyDan]

Thanks, that is interesting, and might help me open my speech. I was going to focus more on the legal issues though, and that article confused me... was it basically saying leachers ruin the P2p networks?

Does anyone have any links to things the RIAA have done that are pretty outrageous? Ive heard discussion before of elderly people charged for downloading music that their grandchildren got ahold of and such, is there something like this i can use to make my point that people are over reacting and that the RIAA's goal to scare people is pathetic or something along those lines?

[100%]

http://filesharingtalk.com/index.php?showforum=79

[vidcc]

what happened to research? Kids today have a wealth of easy knowledge (mind you there is also misinformation) available to them via the internet and yet they still ask others to do the legwork for them.

This is not a pop at you dan as you seem to only be asking for advice as to the best way to present your work..... perhaps your teachers could help (make them earn their money) not only would asking your teacher benefit you but it would also make them know that they are not just banging their heads against a brick wall. A good teacher will be more than happy to take the time to help you succeed

[DirtyDan]

Yeah, thanks for the advice vidcc, im mostly being lazy. I dont know why i didnt bother to look for other topics :o ah im dumb oh well. Yeah my english teacher would be a good source for help structuring this thing, but i was mostly looking for your opinions on which direction i should go with this. She doesnt know anything about my topic, and everyone here does of course, and has their own feelings on the issue.

[sexfem]

You could go with where is file sharing going to end up, rather than where it is today.

In my opinion the powers that be will concede to the the fact that they cant win.
So if you cant win then join them. I can see the future where records will be
released on the likes of Kazaa, at the cost of a few pence to the members to legitimately download them. All other downloads and sharing will be covered by advertisers on this media paying the royalty costs, where applicable, to the other artists. Remember we are talking pennies here.

The people who make the money out of the records are not the artist but the big moguls, who would disappear to be replaced by the owners of Kazaa type sites. At the present Kazaa is one of the biggest, but if this ever takes place it will be the people with the largest sites who will get the legitimate franchises.

Anybody who sees this as the future will now be trying to build up their various sites in order to compete. As for the charges of a few pence per legitimate records I think you will find that a lot of people would agree with this. It would also be a stipulation of joining the various boards.

If this ever takes place, I can see it coming, in fact it has already started in a very small way, then you would have a war, initially, to gain franchises.

This is only my opinion, but I think the war has already started. We are not aware of it yet.

[DirtyDan]

Thats a crazy thought, so basically you think in the future Kazaa will join in with something similar to what Napster has created? Hmmm thats an interesting point you have. The whole point of the speech is to be persuasive, so i guess i can now say that P2p will not be stopped?

My current points, although not sure how to fit them together:

1. The RIAA is a whore
*They have payed radio stations to not support independant musicians, somewhat going against the constitution and creating a monopoly
*They're Clean Slate scam was completely unjust and also illegal
*The RIAA's methods for competing against the P2p industry have somewhat been a waste of much time and money
*Basically, the P2p industry's biggest opponent is in the wrong just as much as copyright infridgement is;
2. Filesharing is like a community of freinds
*Restricting this would be like a direct assault on the first ammendment, as it could be compared to restricting people from sharing media in their encounters throughout the day
*Many files shared on P2p are completely legal, and some musicians have used it as a gateway to get their music out to people
*P2p has also been a way to advertise and get more music out to people, widdening their interests and possibly helping the music economy (this is my bullshit opinion ive gathered from watching the effect P2p has had on my friends and I)
3. Dunno yet

Well its a start so far i guess...... Alot of this ive gathered from the sources you guys have given me, thanks for that.

[DirtyDan]

Any comments? Im presenting tommorow maybe, and still lack a good visual, or a quote. I can always quote off of some anti-riaa site, but it seems like im turning this thing too political and complicated, i need a better foundation hm.... :smilie4:

[kAb]

Originally posted by DirtyDan@20 April 2004 - 21:06
Any comments? Im presenting tommorow maybe, and still lack a good visual, or a quote. I can always quote off of some anti-riaa site, but it seems like im turning this thing too political and complicated, i need a better foundation hm....  :smilie4:
last minute panic? :lol:

Get some of those statistics that say ever since napster & p2p became popular, music sales went up.

edit: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navc...music+sales+p2p (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=music+sales+p2p)

that has some statistics, but search around and you'll find better ;)

[DirtyDan]

Great idea kab, its what ive been thinking but i just.. am.. not... Dayaam am i this lazy!? Google time :P

[kAb]

Originally posted by DirtyDan@20 April 2004 - 21:22
Great idea kab, its what ive been thinking but i just.. am.. not... Dayaam am i this lazy!? Google time :P
Yes, you ARE that lazy :lol:

Get out of this forum and just do it already. :rolleyes: :P

[DirtyDan]

Thanks for the motivation, ive been sitting here too much. Just googled for statistics and; first thing that shows up is exactly what ive been needing, hard facts. The RIAA released 25% less, raised prices ~8%, and only recieved a 10.3% decrease, taking note that this was AFTER they shut down the notorious napster. Before it was shut down, the cd sales were booming :lol: They also failed to take into account that our economy has gone to shit, and that music-only DVD sales jumped a whopping 5,000%! (from ~2000 to 100,000 ). Atleast thats what im going to BS in my speech, some of these facts are more specific to regions. Why am i informing you guys? Ahh! im addicted to the forum :ph34r:

[DirtyDan]

Im doing the speech tomorrow now i guess, here's my current one :

Napster; What comes to mind when I name this notorious company? Most of you are probably thinking of file sharing, music, lawsuits, piracy, and as the Recording Industry Association of America would like you to think, a shot down the music economies throat. You may be surprised to hear, however, that the RIAA’s own statistics show that during Napster’s prime, cd sales were at their height. The truth is, album sales only dropped after Napster was shut down in 1999. There are various causes attributing to this, such as the RIAA’s 25% production decrease, their 8% average price per unit increase, and the overall drop in the economy following the events of 2000-2001. Despite these factors, the change in earnings was only a 10% drop cd’s, less than the drop in production, showing an ever-growing interest in buying cd’s. Added to this, per album the RIAA actually sold an average 25% more to the consumer. Looking at the entire scheme of the RIAA’s sales past just cd’s, their drop over 2000-2001 was actually only a mere 4%. The more realistic blame of the loses they did suffer can be attributed to their lack of interest in their own musicians, as their cutback on investment shows a strong correlation to their loses.

What Napster actually did, was provided a community in which users could share and relay their music tastes over a wide range of people, and was used by some independent musicians as an avenue of advertisement. The RIAA seems to target these individuals, and even goes to the extreme of paying radio corporations off in an agreement to not play music from these independent artists; creating a monopoly over the whole industry of music and taking command in the worst way. Napster was eventually shut down, not too long after its powerful rise, through a lawsuit directed from the RIAA.

The RIAA’s approach at combating this music swapping has been at times outrageous and uneeded. Brianna LaHara, a 12-year old New York girl, was sued last year for sharing music through one of these networks. She and her family now face up to $150,000 dollars per song shared. The only justifiable reason for the actions taken here is for the RIAA to strike fear in those who use such applications. Why would they want to scare people like this? One reason for this could have been their “Clean Slate” scam, in which they offered people immunity if they were to admit their wrongs and start anew. Instead, this simply baited people into a situation that they could be taken to court over.

Today, these networks of music distribution still exist, although not as well as their predecessor Napster. The same effect seems to be taking hold, though, and the piracy of these music files is doing as much harm as it is helping in the aspect of sales. A study from Harvard even shows that online music downloads has had little impact on the music industry. Companies on the Internet are now also making purchasing songs for download increasingly easier and completely legal, such as the reformed Napster Corporation and Wal-Mart’s online music database.  Technology cannot and should not be stopped; it is a necessary component of advancing civilization. Although downloading music is still illegal, and an infringement of copyright rules, it can be a way to propagate new and coming music, just as the radio has in the past decades and continues to today.


Any suggestions before i try to memorize or atleast get this all down in my head? I need to rephrase some stuff i know... :unsure: