file exchange software
alias ： P2software,file sharing software
the file exchange software is the software which exchanges files among unspecified many computers through the internet. It is criticized as it is causing the illegal circulation of information such as infringement of copyright.
There are technically major two types of the file exchange soft wares; central server type and pure type. As for central server type, the central server administrates the information of users and lists of their files, and only transmission of files are conducted directly between users. Nepster, which was a pioneer of the file exchange software, was the central server type. On the other hand, the pure type does not have the administrative server, so all the information is circulated between users. The central server type is more efficient due to the smaller quantity of communication, however, all the service will be stopped if the central server gets down. In the case of pure type, the trouble of a part of network does not cause the suspension of all the network even though increasing users could make the network more and more crowded.
As it was mentioned above, the pioneer of this system is Nepster, which was invented by university students in the United States. Nepster was invented originally as the exchange software of mp3 files in January 1999. They industrialized Nepster and tried to expand the business, but they lost in the trial of infringement of copyright and became bankrupt. Roxio Co. bought the assets of Nepster and restarted it as the pay music distribution service in October 2003.
Since then, various file exchange soft wares were born including one for business and non-business, however, the dispute on the infringement of copyright is still not settled. The music, film, and software industries clams that the file exchange software itself is illegal, as the file exchange soft wares caused infringement of their copyrights. On the other hand, some people claim that the film exchange software is legal and it is only vicious users who are responsible for the infringement of copyright.
In Japan, WinMX is widely used as the central server type and Winny as the pure type. Two people were arrested in November 2001 because of infringement of copyright through Winny.