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TheRegister: Wanadoo is caching your KaZaA

Here is an interesting business model. First you develop an excellent platform for P2P-filesharing and by offering it for free to the users make it successful enough to hog loads of bandwidth. In step 2 you develop a software for ISPs, providing them with a cache for the P2P-network, reducing server load and international bandwidth usage. Sell expensively. Great! I love their thinking!

Of course, you would have to worry about RIAA lawyers come knocking on your door when they realise that your caching software actually stores illegal copies of music and movies, making it a whole lot faster and easier for people to get the latest copy of the HULK before it reaches the theaters in Sweden...

"Subscribers of Wanadoo Netherlands can download MP3s and videos twice as fast, thanks to a PeerCache set up by the company for users of KaZaA and other peer to peer networks."

Actually, this gets even more interesting. We all know what types of files flow in P2P-networks. Copyrighted music and movies, games and software.

Normally, nothing is stored centrally in a P2P-network to avoid the problem of storing illegal files in an easy to find (and shut down) location. What is a cache? Centrally stored (or perhaps more correct parts of?) files for users to share, bringing the already downloaded / uploaded megabytes closer to people requesting them again and again.

"PeerCache is highly controversial. Typically, files are only swapped between users; there is no central server for downloading. The KaZaA network merely points users to files contained on other PCs. For this reason The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) last week changed legal tack, threatening to file lawsuits against thousands of individual file traders."

Should ISPs be allowed to cache content flowing in their networks in order to reduce traffic? Of course. Should they be allowed even if the contents in the cache are illegal copies of music and movies? Of course!

Anything else would be like having whatever authority responsible for the roads trying to stop cars containing fleeing bank robbers...

The Register: Wanadoo is caching your KaZaA

Posted by manne at July 3, 2003 10:59 AM | TrackBack

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