As the record industry tracks down post-Napster file-swapping havens, it's giving the sprawling Gnutella network a pass, at least for now. According to the RIAA, there are not enough users on the Gnutella network. They also say to have a strategy in case the Gnutella network gets bigger:
According to Frank Creighton, the Recording Industry Association of America's chief anti-piracy officer, the community of file swappers that doesn't trade through a central server just isn't enough of a problem to warrant the efforts leveled at independent OpenNap and other Napster clones. Citing network frailties, privacy issues, and low adoption rates, he said his organization is watching the protean network but isn't yet bothering to crack down on members. |
"We have a strategy, but we have yet to implement it," Creighton said, adding that the group could change tactics if the Gnutella service improves.
The statement goes to the heart of how far the record industry and other copyright holders are willing to go to track down individual online file swappers--and how much anonymity music traders can retain online.
Gnutella has long been touted as the most enforcement-resistant of the popular file-swapping networks because of its near-complete decentralization. Unlike Napster, iMesh or any of the other similar systems, no central point links people together and serves as an index to all of their files and searches. Instead, thousands of individual computers connect to each other in a massive digital daisy chain, passing search requests down the line as they come in.
Well if they shutdown, there is still freenet with encrypted transfers.
Source: Cnet.com
