File sharing the ability for many users to share various files on a global scale. It usually involves one person hosting a file on a website for users to download and share with others (Thompson). The mediums in which a person can use to share files are vast as it can be as simple as sending a text message with a picture attachment to an e-mail with multiple documents and spreadsheets attached and ready for use to even more complex methods of sharing such as establishing a network in which a large group of users work simultaneously on files and share them within an organization (Thompson).
P2P sharing exists allowing users to quickly download files that would otherwise take a very long time to download. The most common type of P2P sharing is torrenting. The Bittorrent Protocol was founded in 2001 as a faster means of sharing files between people (Thompson). It involves one person downloading a part of a file and collecting the rest of the parts from others downloading the file at the same time. All these parts are shared in real time as the file is downloaded in multiple locations so the user can download those parts at the same time they are downloading the file (Thompson). This lets users download files much more quickly as they are receiving them from multiple sources. Quite handy if it wasn't being used for illegal purposes.
If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below.
Sources:
http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/13.01/bittorrent.html
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