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What is P2P anyways? P2P refers to peer-to-peer file sharing. The premise of P2P is that thousands (or in the case of the original Napster, millions) of Internet users voluntarily share files that are located on their computer hard drives. This is accomplished when each user voluntarily choosing to download a software program onto their computer that allows them to share their files with other Internet users. Once the software program is in place, users can choose to swap files. The most common types of files that are swapped by P2P users are music MP3 files or AVI files of songs and videos. Using P2P programs became very popular a few years ago because it provided users with instantaneous access to a whole library of music and video. And it was completely free, and easy to use. Many users of popular P2P programs likened the experience to completing a simple web search online.

At the heart of the P2P software programs was the ability to upload and download. P2P software allowed users to upload files from their computer into the system. Users of P2P file sharing systems could quickly upload all of their favorite songs and videos to share with other users. They could even rate their own material, or provide a small description of the content they were uploading. Of course, the other side of the P2P file sharing system was downloading. Even large files, ranging from five MB to five GB could be uploaded with relative ease, assuming a high speed Internet connection was being used to upload. For the average high-speed Internet users, it was easy to download all the music files on a full-length CD for under an hour. As for movies, a whole film could potentially be downloaded less than three hours. For those P2P users uploading and downloading from slower Internet connections, it could take much longer to download a single song, and an entire movie was probably out of the question altogether.

The most famous of all the P2P file sharing systems ever in use is without a doubt Napster 1.0, the original Napster. From 1999 to 2002, Napster allowed users to participate in a thriving environment of no holds barred Internet P2P file sharing and swapping. At its peak, it is estimated that roughly 70 million people were participating in the world’s largest P2P file sharing system. Most of the participants were young music lovers, especially college students, who took advantage of dorm and university high speed Internet connections to upload and download to their hearts content. It is estimated that when Napster peaked in 2002, nearly 85 percent of all American college students were participating in Napster P2P file sharing.

All this happy file sharing came to an end when several high profile music artists began to accuse Napster of violating their copyright rights. The major record labels and the Recording Industry Association of America united and also filed lawsuits against Napster. Finally, in 2002, the entire frenzied Napster P2P file sharing activity was halted. After a protracted legal battle, Napster was finally forced to shut down its massive network. However, other popular P2P file sharing systems persisted online. Napster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and was eventually acquired by the software company Roxio.

Napster abandoned the popular P2P file sharing system and morphed into an entirely different operation, although they have sought to keep many of the community features that helped make the original Napster incarnation so popular. Now Napster is a fully legitimate operation. They operate as a pay service online, and along with the Apple iTunes Music Store, they represent one of the leaders in digital music.