Media Focus on P2P in Decline

There was a time when just about every news magazine covered some aspect of file-sharing. It didn’t matter if the publication (online or not) was general news or technology news; there was always something on file-sharing to report. But that time was long ago, when the P2P revolution was a novelty and everyone wanted to be involved.Today the tables have turned. P2P is no longer the stunning new anti-establishment agenda barreling its way throughout the Internet. The days of reporting that “Ares Tops 500,000” users is over; much like reporting “Stunning new P2P Network Launched” is a mere throwback in file-sharing history.Associated with this demise in P2P attention is the efforts of the entertainment industry to contain the growth of file-sharing. Once a near monthly campaign to hyperbolize their lawsuit efforts, the entertainment industry switched tactics to a more localized and personal attempt. The results of this switch have been similar to the decline in file-sharing attention, as both are increasingly relegated to back page information.The decline in P2P media attention is largely attributable to the type of media that file-sharing is generating. Back when P2P was exciting, avid fans of this Internet medium would chase down the latest headlines on what file-sharing community was growing the fastest, which network had the most files, when the next version of their favorite software would be released, and what new, innovative features would surface.The last P2P network and or client that truly captivated the file-sharing audience was WinMX. Beyond its substantial ability to share information, WinMX was one of the few networks that recaptured the communal nature of Napster. Those who have been part of the file-sharing community since the beginning will remember the extensive chat rooms organized by genre, where users shared thousands of files. Members of this now long defunct community could browse extensive catalogs, which revolutionized the ability to find new music.WinMX rejuvenated this concept. However its slow death, which culminated in September of 2005, finally killed this vestige of Napster. Attempts have tried to resuscitate WinMX; however the effort is historic equivalent of the doomed Byzantine campaign to recapture the Western Roman Empire. This is not to say extensive catalogs of files do not exist, rather the community nature has been supplanted by BitTorrent and eDonkey2000 indexing websites. SoulSeek, a direct descendent of Napster, is the only independent P2P application with any semblance to the old days of file-sharing.Also, the type of news being covered by the press is being greeted by more yawns than nodes connected to LimeWire superpeer. Are people truly interested in Sharman Network’s $100 million settlement? Do we care that BearShare has to shell out $30 million to the music industry? Is BitTorrent, Inc.’s venture into authorized content worth getting excited about? Some people are genuinely interested in these aspects of P2P news, however for the overwhelming majority these events are simply too out of touch. Headline such as “Gnutella vs. Gnutella2”, “WinMX 4.0 around the Corner”, and “eDonkey2000 exceeds 1 Million Users” were landmarks in the history of P2P – the types of stories that many file-sharers could appreciate and learn from.But it appears those days belong to history. Not because file-sharing or P2P is dying – actually quite the contrary. File-sharing and P2P have become so mainstream, so entrenched within Internet culture, that the news generated is becoming no more or less significant than other Internet mediums. Do we clamor when a new e-mail POP upgrade is announced? When HTTP is tweaked? When FTP’s efficiency is enhanced? Not many people do, but millions of people use these protocols on a daily basis. So when we say that P2P and file-sharing have joined these mediums in the realm of critical Internet protocols, it’s a great day for technological innovation and progress – which only a select number of people will read about.