Doing a project on File Sharing. Please help!

[JunkMonster]

Im doing a project on File Sharing and I was wondering if you guys can help me. My question is, what businesses have sprung up to makethese services (file sharing) legal? I've done a search on google but I haven't found jack about it.

Anyone will help. Thanks.

[sArA]

I suggest you look up the different clients used past and present, napster, morpheus, kazaa, emule, bittorrent, newsgroups etc. You can find stuff on them.

You could also consider some of the activist movements such as the electronic frontier foundation.

Also, a discussion of various legal battles, the recent closure of some Torrent sites and attempts by RIAA to stop filesharing.

Discuss the 'sharing' ethos of the file-sharing community.

A lot of the 'businesses' to make things legal are lawyers.
The pay to download sites are trying to squeeze a market but are not doing so well I think.

Much of the attempts to justify legal file sharing is on pretty shaky ground within the copywrite laws of most countries. Legal challenges are most likely to be successful where the right to copywrite material is under question.

There are some starters to refine your googling.

[Vargas]

altnet/brilliant digital and a bunch of others that offer content via p2p

[uNz[i]]

Many Linux distros are available on p2p networks like BitTorrent.
It's a perfectly legitimate use of a filesharing network, openly encouraged by the distro creators themselves.
For example, here's the Debian Linux full CD set offered on BitTorrent - 100% free and legal.
Using p2p saves Debian.org money by easing the strain on thier ftp servers and reduces bandwidth costs.

Using p2p just makes good sense.