In late July, KickassTorrents, a much celebrated torrents platform, was shut down by the US government, and last Saturday, search engine Torrentz.eu ‘voluntarily’ ceased operations. The website was reportedly under immense pressure to kill its search system that enabled millions of users to find torrent files that help them download and share films, books, software and other documents, using peer-topeer applications. These two portals are not the first to go down in the continuing battle against peer-to-peer sharing across the globe. Governments, always under pressure from various industries, crack their whips on and off to some effect. But thanks to the general ‘rule’ of computing— that there is alwaysaworkaround—most often these websites re-emerge or countless mirror-sites appear, re-directing users to the same content, making the efforts against piracy go in vain.
Granted, companies lose money from piracy and hence they have the right to protect their intellectual property. But peer-to-peer sharing has revolutionised the way people share information across the globe, democratising knowledge dissemination in critical areas such as education, films, computing, publishing and so on.Knowledge-sharing is the fundamental right of individuals and no laws in the world can deny them this.
The ongoing campaign against torrent sites makes it appear that all torrents are illegal.But they are not. Millions of people share academic papers, books, free software, and movies with their peers in parts of the world where they cannot afford to buy them from market monopolies. Also, peer-to-peer sharing isadecentralised idea and attempts to streamline and centralise such sharing will impact the democracy of the web. The industry thinks only controlled and centralised sharing (like Netflix or YouTube) can help track usage and generate revenues and hence their actions are justified. Companies should re-synch their revenue models and define copyrights inapluralistic, modern environment and try to address piracy in a holistic manner
Jinoy Jose P
Deputy Editor