The Chronicler's Web (TCW)

by DAN CALLOWAY
Published 11 February 2010 @ 23:42 UTC

WEAVERVILLE, NC – Abstract - Napster is a hybrid P2P networking application that has revolutionized the worldwide marketing, distribution, and availability of music MP3 files. Although Napster was originally designed to permit users across the Internet to share music on their computers with other Napster users, the evolution of this P2P networking application has opened up new possibilities for e Commerce for the music industry to take advantage of increased availability of music worldwide, which can potentially lead to increased music sales revenues for individual music organizations and the music industry as a whole.

Introduction

The P2P networking application that was chosen for this critique was Napster. This application was selected because of its applicability to any organization that has the need to share, or make available for sale, music files with others across the Internet. Music companies, such as the fictional company, XYZ Music, Inc., can easily share music with other companies who need access to music as well as obtain music files from other organizations in the music business easily, quickly, and securely without having to use other slower means such as the mail system or courier.

Background

Napster was the original hybrid Peer-to-peer (P2P) networking MP3 file sharing application that became popular overnight. A hybrid P2P networking system has a central server that maintains information on peers and responds to requests for that information but this central server does not store individual files that are shared (Crosse, Wilson, Walsh, Cohen, & Smith, 2002). This application represents the quintessential P2P software application still in use today. The definition for P2P was first suggested by Dave Winer of UserLand Software years ago when P2P was beginning to hit the mainstream (Mitchell, B., 2010). Dave suggested that all P2P networking applications have seven key characteristics: (1) the user interface runs outside of a Web browser; (2) computers who use the system act as both servers and clients; (3) the software application is user friendly and easy to install; (4) the application allows users to create their own content and add functionality; (5) the application connects to other users; (6) the application performs a new or innovative purpose; and (7) the software application supports “cross networking” protocols, such as SOAP or XML-RPC (Mitchell, B). Napster holds true to form as a P2P networking application that meets all seven of these requirements.

What Does Napster Do?

Napster allows users within an organization and not just within a home LAN to share MP3 music files with other users across the Internet via a cross-platform application that runs outside of a Web browser. In addition to allowing users to share file content with others, it allows users to create content and make that content available for downloading while selecting the granularity with which they can securely perform this file sharing functionality. Thus Napster is not only a file server (allowing others to download content from a platform), but is a file sharing client. Napster also has a self-contained chat functionality, which permits users to communicate with one another prior to, during, and after file downloads (Mitchell, B., 2010). The chat functionality within Napster was both innovative and exciting for users when it was first developed and distributed worldwide, and it remains an innovative product even today. Napster originally referred to not only the P2P networking component but the file sharing client portion as well. Even though the P2P networking component was somewhat transparent to the user and did not affect its user popularity, Napster used a proprietary networking protocol that supported its functionality across the Internet (Mitchell, B.)

Why Does Napster Benefit From P2P Networking?

Napster benefits from hybrid P2P networking capabilities because, unlike traditional server-client networking arrangements, hybrid P2P’s distributed computing functionality allows the sharing of files, such as MP3 files, and other computer services, such as chat, via direct transfer between two computers (Crosse et al., 2002). Eliminating the need for a Server to push files to clients across the Internet, users can share the content of their hard drives and don’t have to rely on a master Server repository of MP3 files that may not be updated on a regular basis. Moreover, unlike a single Server supporting multiple clients worldwide, users’ desktop computers containing the requested MP3 files are more likely to be in an “up” status somewhere in the world on a continual basis, thus affording greater access to these files when requested.

How Does an Organization Benefit from Napster?

Organizations benefit from Napster, especially the music industry or, specifically, XYZ Music, Inc., in Napster’s ability to make music files available to a larger audience of potential users than would be possible in traditional server-client networking scenarios. Through this increased availability, the music industry and XYZ Music, Inc., could market their music to a much wider group of potential music buyers than would be possible otherwise.

What are the issues Regarding the Use of Napster?

One major issue or drawback to increased availability of MP3 music files via Napster and the hybrid P2P networking scenario, however, is the increased risk in music piracy via sharing of music without paying royalties (Crosse et al., 2002). Nonetheless, if the security measures can be worked out through the use of P2P networking, such that MP3 music files are not pirated, then the availability of and increased revenues that can be seen from a greater purchasing audience is worth the risk. A side issue with the original use of Napster was the inability of the music industry, as a whole, to regulate the downloading of or sharing of newly-created music files, which circumvented the music industry’s control of the worldwide marketing and distribution of these MP3 files (Crosse et al., 2002). These issues appear to have been worked out since Napster appeared on the scene many years ago, and Napster has enjoyed a renewed vigor in the realm of P2P networking applications.

References

Crosse, S., Wilson, E., Walsh, A., Cohen, D., & Smith, C. (2002). P2P Networks. P2P Networks. Retrieved February 11, 2010, from http://ntrg.cs.tcd.ie/undergrad/4ba2.02-03/p4.html

Mitchell, B. (2010). Overview of P2P Applications and Networks. Overview of P2P Applications and Networks. Retrieved February 11, 2010, from http://compnetworking.about.com/od/p2ppeertopeer/a/p2pintroduction_2.htm