Threads
on the P2P, PDE, Collaboration, and the Napster/Wrapster/Gnutella/Pointera/FreeNet/BearShare/KaZaA/
Paradigm Shift in Web Serving and Searching
Bob Jensen
at Trinity University
Email Threads and Media Updates
Update Articles (Including Kazaa, Nudester and Aimster and Gnutella)
File Sharing by Instant Messaging
Bob Jensen's threads on plagiarism are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/plagiarism.htm
In a major setback for the music and movie industries, a federal
appeals court upholds a lower court's decision in the infamous Grokster case,
ruling peer-to-peer services Morpheus and Grokster are not liable for the
copyright infringement of their users.
"P2P Services in the Clear," by Katie Dean, Wired News, August
19. 2004 --- http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,64640,00.html?tw=newsletter_topstories_html
Walt's Warnings About File Sharing
"The Practical Case Against File Sharing," by Walter Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, October 20, 2005 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB112976373382173735.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
Q:
Are there problems with using file-swapping sites like Kazaa, as long as you have a good antivirus protection program? I don't mind paying for individual songs, but other sites like iTunes or Rhapsody often don't have the songs I want.A:
Yes, there are problems. The first are the ethical and legal issues arising from obtaining somebody else's copyrighted intellectual property without paying for it, from a person who isn't licensed or authorized to distribute it. The other sites you mention, iTunes and Rhapsody, are legally licensed to distribute music. Kazaa and its ilk aren't, nor are the people who make music available through them. Your argument is like rationalizing buying stolen TVs because your local Best Buy didn't have the model you wanted.If your conscience can get past that, there are practical issues. These sites are major transmitters not only of viruses, but of spyware, which your antivirus program can't stop. Even if your PC has a full, up-to-date security suite, with antispyware software, you are asking for trouble by downloading from "file swapping" sites. Many of the people I hear from who have had to take drastic, costly steps to save heavily infected PCs attribute their problems to the fact that their kids were frequenting file-sharing sites.
Are cookies bad for your computer's health?
"Extreme File Sharing," by Brian Krebs, The Washington Post, October 18, 2005 --- http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2005/10/extreme_file_sh.html?referrer=email
Spent a few hours over the weekend poking around Limewire , an online peer-to-peer file-sharing network where an estimated 2 million users share and swap MP3 files, movies, software titles and just about anything and everything else made up of ones and zeroes (including quite a few virus-infected files).
I was sifting the lists not for music or movie files, but for the stuff Limewire users may not know they're sharing with the rest of the network. I quickly found what I was looking for, and then some: dozens of entries for tax and payroll records, medical records, bank statements, and what appeared to be company books.
A search for "cookies" or "paypal," for example, turned up cookie files for a number of financial institutions. Having cookie files exposed might be a little less dangerous if you couldn't also click your way through every shared file on a user's machine. For the most part I found that users who shared sensitive information were also sharing the contents of their entire hard drives.
Some users were sharing many megabytes' worth of e-mails and addresses from their Microsoft Outlook inboxes and archives. But perhaps most revealing was a search for "keylog.txt," which turned up several huge text files no doubt generated by a keystroke logger -- a nasty bit of malware that records everything a victim types and relays the data back to the attacker.
At first, I felt a little weird looking at records of one apparent victim's private (and frequently explicit) online chat conversations from just a few months back. But I wanted to find some contact information in there so I could at least notify this person that their system had been compromised. I found an AIM instant message ID -- but alas, that screen name wasn't signed on. I even found what appeared to be the victim's cell phone number, but got a fast-busy signal upon dialing it.
As I read on, however, it became clear that the victim at some point realized his machine was infected with some sort of virus, as evidenced by his IM complaints to a friend that his antivirus software had alerted him to something evil on his machine.
Over the course of several days (the first 10 or so pages of the keylog record) it appears that the victim tried to repel whatever had invaded his computer. Apparently he failed, because not long after he seems to have stopped searching (or at least stopped complaining about it) -- even though the keylogger was clearly still doing its job.
My guess is that this guy ran an antivirus or anti-spyware scan which found and deleted something, so he figured everything was back to normal.
This reminds me of a concept that security professionals understand all too well: When a computer system is compromised by a virus or worm, the only way to truly clean it is to back up the data and resinstall the operating system, including any software patches issued since the computer was purchased. This can be a bitter pill to swallow for home users, many of whom have trouble understanding why someone would go through the trouble of trying to hack their system in the first place.
None of this to say that antivirus tools and other security applications can't remove these intrusive programs on their own; often they do the job quite nicely. But many of today's more aggressive threats are designed to open the door for other intruders, which might not be so easily detected by security software.
Obviously, the lessons here are: If you're going to use file-sharing networks, be extremely careful about what you download; and, pay close attention to the files and folders you are letting the rest of the world see.
Bob Jensen's threads on computer and networking security are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/000start.htm#SpecialSection
Bob
Jensen and Jason Xiao have a paper focusing on file sharing in accountancy:
"Customized Financial Reporting, Networked Databases, and
Distributed File Sharing," by Robert E. Jensen and Jason Zezhong Xiao,
Accounting Horizons, September 2001 --- http://accounting.rutgers.edu/raw/aaa/pubs.htm
Peer-to-Peer Networking (P2P) Technology and CASR This joint CASR could be implemented in an environment of networked databases and distributed file sharing. Such an environment is emerging with the advent of a group of Internet-based peer-to-peer distributed software alternatives such as Napster ( http:// www.napster.com ), Gnutella (http://gnutella.wego.com), InfoSearch ( http://infosearch.com ), Freenet ( http://www.freenet.com ), and Pointera ( http://www.spinfrenzy.com ). Peer-to-peer file distribution technology allows users to search for data on other people’s computers. Although these software products are not the same, the technology’s main features are its ability to facilitate distributed file sharing, ad hoc networking, and distributed search.4 These features make the location of files irrelevant; data belong to the entire network rather than to a particular computer (Oram 2000). The importance of peer-to-peer file sharing in the future is nicely summarized by Waters (2001). This type of technology has enormous implications for CASR. In the world of peer-to- peer networking, companies and analysts can earmark the data for access by numer-ous networked users and any user can access numerous interpretations of a business report and share financial analyses of Company XYZ by Analyst A, Analyst B, and Company XYZ itself.
Fighting Child Porn
December 14, 2004 message from InternetWeek NewsBreak [internet_week@update.internetweek.com]
High-tech companies often deserve more criticism than praise, but occasionally someone in the industry launches an initiative that deserves a high-five. The Distributed Computing Industry Association is on a crusade to drive child pornography out of peer-to-peer networks.
The trade group that represents P2P companies like Grokster and Sharman Networks launched on Monday a site called P2P Patrol
(www.p2ppatrol.com) that's meant to help network users recognize and report child pornography. The site is the latest step taken by the group since launching its initiative in the spring.
But the best is yet to come. The DCIA plans to make available in February, software tools that its members could integrate into the desktop software downloaded by subscribers. If a customer finds what he thinks is child pornography, he only has to right-click on the file and select CPHotline.org, which will send the file location and other information to DCIA. If the group determines that the file contains illegal images or video, then DCIA will notify law enforcement.
The DCIA deserves a big pat on the back for taking on the role of filter between consumers and law enforcement. Rather than overwhelm police with a lot of files that may not fit the definition of illegal pornography, the group is willing to screen the submissions first.
The only complaint I have is against the DCIA's slow-moving members. So far, only two have publicly supported the initiative, while the others remain actively involved behind the scenes, according to DCIA Chief Executive Marty Lafferty.
Lafferty expects nearly 100 percent support of the upcoming software tool once a number of legal and technical issues are worked out.
Let's hope so. A company would have a difficult time explaining why they opted out of this initiative.
If you want to read more, check out the link under the News section of the newsletter. In the meantime, it's worth mentioning that Microsoft has joined the desktop-search race with rivals Google and Yahoo. Microsoft released a preview of its software on the heels of Yahoo's announcement that it would have a product available in January. Google has had a desktop-search tool in beta for two months.
Go to today's Leading Off for more information. Monday's newsletter also discussed search and the three competitors.
As always, send an email and let me know what you think about the above topics or anything else on your mind.
Antone Gonsalves, antoneg@pacbell.net
Editor, InternetWeek http://update.internetweek.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/ek7y0GMPWZ0G4X0BbSA0Ac
Landmark Court Case on File Sharing
A federal appeals court will hear oral arguments in a case questioning whether
peer-to-peer sites Grokster and Morpheus should be held liable for the illegal
file trading on their networks.
"Court to Hear Landmark P2P Case," by Katie Dean, Wired News, February 2, 2004 --- http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,62112,00.html?tw=newsletter_topstories_html
A federal appeals court is poised to hear arguments in a landmark case that could decide the future of peer-to-peer services, and may affect whether technology companies can be held liable for their customers' behavior.
On Tuesday, lawyers for the entertainment industry will face off against attorneys for peer-to-peer operators Grokster and StreamCast Networks in front of a three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California.
Continued in the article.
"Sources: Penn State to Offer Free Music," by Alex Veiga, MySA.com, November 6, 2003 --- http://snurl.com/PennStateMusic
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- In an apparent campus first aimed at undercutting the file-swapping craze, Penn State University will offer students free digital music listening and limited downloading from the relaunched Napster service, music industry sources said Wednesday.
However, if students wants to keep a song or burn it to a CD they will need to pay.
The university said Wednesday it had entered into an agreement with an unidentified party to provide digital music at no cost to students. University officials were expected to provide details of the deal Thursday during a conference in Anaheim.
Penn State, which has about 83,000 students on several campuses, has been testing the program with a select group of students, university spokeswoman Amy Neil said. Initially, only the 13,000 students living on campus will be eligible to access the free music, Neil said.
She would not identify the online music service or give further details. Music industry sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the provider was Napster.
A Napster spokesman declined to comment.
A search firm in Denmark, caught in a legal tug-of-war over so-called deep linking, is turning to a file-sharing system in an attempt to avoid further confrontations --- http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,57230,00.html
Will Apple's new paid music service put a dent in free file-trading services like Kazaa and Gnutella? No, because most files being traded on P2P sites aren't music files at all. Surprise -- they're porn --- http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58665,00.html
"Students Learning to Evade Moves to Protect Media Files," by Amy Harmon, The New York Times, November 27, 2002 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/27/technology/27SWAP.html
As colleges across the country seek to stem the torrent of unauthorized digital media files flowing across their campus computer networks, students are devising increasingly sophisticated countermeasures to protect their free supply of copyrighted entertainment.
Most colleges have no plans to emulate the Naval Academy, which last week confiscated computers from about 100 students who are suspected of having downloaded unauthorized copies of music and movie files. But many are imposing a combination of new technologies and new policies in an effort to rein in the rampant copying.
For our institutions this is a teachable moment," said Sheldon Steinbach, general counsel of the American Council on Education. "This is the time for them to step forward and demonstrate the value of intellectual property."
Some students may well emerge from educational sessions on copyright laws and electronic etiquette with a higher regard for intellectual property rights. But many of them are honing other skills as well, like how to burrow through network firewalls and spread their downloading activities across multiple computers to avoid detection.
"If you don't know how to do it, other people will just tell you," said Lelahni Potgieter, 23, who learned her file-trading techniques from an art student at her community college in Des Moines. "There's not much they can do to stop you."
Nevertheless, university administrators are trying, spurred on in part by a barrage of letters from entertainment companies notifying them of student abuses. Many entertainment concerns have hired companies to search popular file-trading networks for unauthorized files and track them to their source.
More pragmatic motivations, like the expense of large amounts of university's network bandwidth being absorbed by students' proclivity for online entertainment, are also driving the renewed university efforts.
Schools have closed off the portals used by file-trading services, installed software to limit how much bandwidth each student can use, and disciplined students who share media files. But nothing, so far, has proved entirely effective.
"It's an ongoing battle," said Ron Robinson, a network architect at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill. "It's an administrative nightmare trying to keep up."
In a typical game of digital cat-and-mouse, Mr. Robinson said one of his first moves was to block the points of entry, or ports, into the network used by popular file-trading software like KaZaA.
But the newest version of the KaZaA software automatically searches for open ports and even insinuates itself through the port most commonly used for normal Web traffic, which must be kept open to allow some e-mail reading and other widely used applications to take place uninterrupted.
Even without KaZaA's help, students say they can easily use so-called port-hopping software to find a way past the university's blockades. So Mr. Robinson has rationed the amount of bandwidth that each student can use for file-trading activities.
Continued at http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/27/technology/27SWAP.html
The KaZaA homepage is at http://www.kazaa.com/us/index.php
KaZaA Media Desktop is the number 1 peer-to-peer application which allows people around the world to share files.
Patrick Charles sent the following message on January 24, 2002
Since the fall of napster, it has been difficult for me to find a good file sharing software, Professor Jensen mentioned Gnuetella, I did not like it, well I just found this software http://www.neo-modus.com/
I like it. Worth a look. Check it out, you can share all files, excel, docs, mp3, it has a lot of potential for changing the way accountants can work.
October 29, 2002
The latest version of peer-to-peer file sharing application Freenet is easier to
use -- all part of its creators' goal to reach more people interested in using
P2P to promote free speech --- http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,56063,00.html
November 15, 2001
Aimster launches its own file-trading
subscription service without all those pesky licenses that has kept the
recording industry returning to court --- http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,48255,00.html
March 20, 2002
Aimster suits on hold after bankruptcy filing --- http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-000020204mar20.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dtechnology
A federal judge in Chicago called a temporary halt to the music and movie industries' legal assault on Madster, the online file-swapping service formerly known as Aimster. The move came shortly after two of the targets of the industries' copyright-infringement lawsuit--BuddyUSA Inc. and AbovePeer Inc., which operate Madster--filed for bankruptcy protection.
Excerpt from my March 9, 2001 Edition of New Bookmarks.
From Neal Hannon
Hi Bob,
Jim Kaplan, owner of Audit.net, has compiled an updated Napster site from the auditor's viewpoint. The information should make a nice contribution to your already comprehensive files on Napster. The site takes file sharing risks seriously and exposes the risks companies take on when users open their systems to virtually anyone.
Excerpt:
What should you be doing as an AUDITOR? · talk to your computing management about just how secure the firewall is in your organisation · if they say it's "all under control" make sure you CHECK that it is! · you have no firewall? then make sure all the shares are REMOVED when connecting to the Internet. · start examining WHAT is installed on your PC's i.e.; is it authorised, legal and the sort of software tools you want installed on your PC's · increase your vigilance over software auditing and desktop management · re-inforce desktop compliance policies over software downloading and use of unauthorised/illegal software · conduct spot raids to ensure software compliance · repeat the audit cycle on a regular basis
http://www.auditnet.org/articles/have_you_been_napstered.htm
Neal
Excerpt from my February 23, 2001 edition of New Bookmarks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
What I don't understand is why Napster addicts just do not shift to Gneutella. Gneutella may be virtually impossible to stop with a court edict --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/napster.htm
But there may be a big risk for Gnutella addicts. See "Cookie monster: Gnutella may expose users to data theft" --- http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2683950,00.html
Web surfers trading free music and other digital goods over one of the Web's most popular file-swapping networks are sharing much more: sensitive data files that could expose them to identity theft. One of several file-swapping networks coat-tailing on Napster's success, Gnutella allows people to open the contents of their computers to create a virtual swap meet for MP3s, software, video and text files. A recent casual search of the system revealed scores of files that could compromise the service's users.
Putting these would-be file swappers at risk are electronic markers, known as cookies, left automatically on their computers through Netscape or Internet Explorer Web browsers. Web sites place cookies as a way to identify surfers, using them to create personalized Web sites or accounts at shopping sites such as Amazon.com.
"This not a good thing," said Richard Smith, chief technical officer for the Privacy Foundation, an online privacy watchdog group. "All someone would have to do is take these stolen cookies...and they would be able to masquerade as someone else."
Ordinarily these files are private. But under certain settings in Gnutella, people can open their hard drives indiscriminately to the network, giving anyone who cares to look access to their recent Net history. At best, this can provide a potentially embarrassing look into a person's private Web surfing habits. But unscrupulous individuals could also use these files to log into other people's Web accounts, possibly even gleaning passwords and usernames that could give access to bank accounts or other financial data.
Like Napster and other peer-to-peer programs, Gnutella allows people to open bits or all of their hard drives to other people on the Net, sharing or swapping files with the simple click of a mouse.
But where Napster limits its sharing solely to music, Gnutella supports any type of file. People downloading one of several software programs that tap into the Gnutella network can specify which folders, directories or drives they want to leave open to the public.
For careless or unsophisticated computer users, this can be dangerous. Accidentally opening a full drive, instead of just a single folder, could expose private documents or system files to anyone who takes the time to look. One Gnutella user interviewed said he had recently downloaded somebody's private diary, for example.
"There is a need for users to be very careful about these things," said Kelly Truelove, chief executive of Clip2, a company that does research and consulting on peer-to-peer technologies. "Otherwise they could get a nasty surprise."
In scores of cases, this is taking the form of making private Web cookie files available. Because of the way Gnutella searches work, it's impossible to tell exactly how many people are affected, however.
The actual risk of any given file depends on what sites a person has visited and what level of security those sites maintain.
Many companies, such as Yahoo, leave cookies on visitors' computers that allow personalized sites to be recreated at the next visit.
Most e-mail and financial sites ask for a separate password before allowing access. Most sophisticated Web sites also encrypt this type of information inside the cookie files, so that any genuinely sensitive data appears as an incomprehensible string of numbers or letters.
Not every site takes all of these precautions, however. Some cookie files show up with unencrypted login names and passwords. These could potentially then be plugged into such things as finance sites to see if a person has used the same password for both accounts.
This aspect is potentially more dangerous for Netscape users, because that program stores all cookies in a single file. IE cookies are also being shared on Gnutella, but the information is stored in multiple files, making it slightly more difficult to cross-reference passwords or other information between different sites.
Because dozens or hundreds of these "cookies" can be in each file, combing through them by hand would be difficult to do. But privacy experts say it would be reasonably easy for someone to write a small, automated script to download cookie files as they were made available or to search individual files for specific information.
To guard against this, Gnutella users should make sure they know exactly what folders, directories or drives they are making public, Truelove said.
Excerpt from my January 5, 2001 edition of New Bookmarks at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book01q1.htm
A new acronym to memorize is
P2P
Not just a chaotic haven for Napster fans, peer-to-peer
networking is getting praise from the button-down side of e-commerce
for the business problems it can solve. http://www.eweek.com/a/pcwt0012201/2663715/
Also see Microsoft's P2P Play at http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2668849,00.html
In general, Microsoft plans to incorporate new P2P features into future versions of Windows, Stutz said. "It's not like we'll say, 'This is the peer-to-peer operating system,'" he said. "Peer-to-peer features have already started showing up in our products." Those projects include:
- Passport: To provide Internet-based security features for P2P applications, Microsoft is considering opening its Passport user directory so that it can authenticate a wide range of P2P applications, Stutz said.
- Windows user interface: Microsoft is looking at providing "helper" parts of Windows to enable P2P services in the background, Stutz said.
- Universal Plug and Play: UPnP is a 2-year-old Microsoft-led initiative that lets devices locate other devices on a local network to set up peering relationships. However, UPnP isn't a workable technology for P2P applications that communicate over the Internet. "You need additional protocols to gracefully go from the conference room to the scale of the Internet," Stutz said. "This area is central to the peer-to-peer computing model."
- Simple Object Access Protocol: SOAP, a World Wide Web Consortium specification based on eXtensible Markup Language, lets computers exchange structured information in a decentralized, P2P fashion.
Stutz said that Microsoft has long provided P2P technologies in various incarnations, starting with the file sharing and printer sharing features that have been embedded into Windows for years. Other Microsoft applications operate in a P2P fashion, sending information directly from one computer to another. In addition, Microsoft Office 10 will incorporate MSN Messenger Service for person-to-person collaboration.
Excerpt from my January 12, 2001 edition of New Bookmarks at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book01q1.htm
A new acronym to memorize is PDE
Oracle Corp. has brought out Oracle Product Development Exchange (PDE), a comprehensive collaborative product development and product lifecycle management solution. It allows companies from all industries--such as manufacturing, construction, retail or graphic design--to bring team members together to collaboratively develop, design and review projects or products.
Currently, online collaboration is rare. A recent Forrester Research report indicates that only 12 percent of companies are actively using the Web in their product development process. PDE harnesses the power of an exchange environment in which global, multi-company team members can come together to securely share product information, project schedules and performance metrics in real time. For example, a retail company based in San Francisco could, via a Web browser, review a proposed graphic from its design firm in New York and in real time mark up the copy and reach a final decision.
PDE provides project collaboration tools that automate notifications and facilitate the reduction of time and expense associated with conventional communication methods. Utilizing these collaboration tools, it can facilitate virtual design conferences where CAD drawings can be viewed and marked-up by attendees in separate locations. Drawings can then be cataloged in the Oracle Internet File System (iFS), which guarantees that valuable intellectual capital is securely held in the database, where it can be searched and versions can be maintained.
Excerpt from my January 26, 2000 Edition of New Bookmarks
Now that Napster is virtually dancing to the tune of Bertelsman Music Group (see "Henhouse acquires fox: Now what?" Yahoo Internet Life, February 2001, p. 56) , we wonder what is happening with Peer-to-Peer computing. According to the very important article below, there is a very big future for P2P that will affect education and industry.
The very important Article of the Week is "Peer-to-Peer Computing: The New Old Thing," by John K. Waters, Application Development Trends, January 2001, pp. 20-27 --- http://www.adtmag.com/Pub/article.asp?ArticleID=2217
Buzzwords fly in and out of the IT lexicon like bees at a fast-food pollen franchise. But if the number of companies, projects and initiatives currently swarming into the peer-to-peer space is any indication, this particular buzz is more than just the usual noise. Technology heavyweights are getting involved. Venture capitalists are sniffing the air. And industry watchers are looking beyond the "next big thing" hype, finding technologies with the potential to influence the way software is written and hardware is utilized. IT managers ignore this trend at their peril.
But what exactly is it they should not be ignoring? If ever there was an ill-defined computing concept, it is P2P. Solution offerings from self-described P2P companies range from instant messaging applications to workgroup products, and from file-sharing services to distributed computing architectures. And new ones are fairly lining up to jump on the P2P bandwagon.
"It appears right now that developers are going in all different directions," said Cheryl Currid, president of Houston-based Currid & Company. "The good news is, everyone is working on it; the bad news is, they're all marching to their own drummers. We're going to see a lot of different applications coming out under this peer-to-peer banner that don't look alike. But it's a big tent, and it's full of innovative ideas."
Two of the important paragraphs on Page 24 of the article are quoted below:
One of the few pure P2P offerings is Gnutella, a system through which individuals exchange files directly via the Internet without going through a Web site. Once users install and launch the Gnutella software, their machines function both as servers and clients. They have access to the files of other Gnutella users, and they can download virtually any file type. Like Napster, Gnutella is often used as a way to share music files.
A hybrid P2P system, sometimes called a "brokered" system, involves some level of intermediation. Napster, that controversial and enormously popular MP3 file-sharing system (and the subject of most of the mainstream discussion about P2P), is, in fact, a brokered system. Napster users download music directly to and from their desktop machines, as in a pure system, but Napster utilizes central servers to store key data elements. These servers manage member particulars and shared-file lists and perform music searches to smooth out the process. Napster supports more than 20 million users on a network in which the servers have been relegated to the role of traffic cop.
P2P is a renewed leading edge concept that will become part of all our lives on the networks.
Excerpt from the October 25, 2000 edition of my New Bookmarks
Note especially the
helpful links to online general ledger systems services.
From: tboyle@NoSMAProsehill.net (Todd Boyle)
Subject: Birthing peer-to-peer webledgers--then integrating with themThe Napster phenomenon is huge, they have 32 million users. You may be aware there are a slew of other content sharing or peer-to-peer software projects, other than napster
Freenet http://freenet.sourceforge.net/Publius and http://www.cs.nyu.edu/~waldman/publius/
Mojo Nation http://www.mojonation.net/
Gnutella http://gnutella.wego.com/
Tipster http://tipster.weblogs.com/
FreeHaven http://www.freehaven.net/
Agoric Systems Inc http://www.agorics.com/agorpapers.html (more links http://www.cypherspace.org/links.htmlJim Carico of Potlatch net http://www.potlatch.net/ is one of the leaders in architectures and concepts for payments mechanisms in peer-to-peer networks.
There is explosive potential if http://tipster.weblogs.com or any of the other P2P architectures succeeds in their goal of integrating payments into the sharing of content. I have been participating wherever possible, coaching these people on settlement schemes based on intercompany webledger entries.
Some of them are gradually understanding the importance of an abstraction layer in the archecture related to "payments", rather than tying the p2p network directly to a particular payments provider. Patrick Brietenbach of X.com is an example of commercial banks wooing the peer-to-peer developers to implement direct tying (on Tipster)
(for the uninitiated, commercial webledgers include
NetLedger http://www.netledger.com
BizTone http://www.biztone.com/
IntAcct http://www.intacct.com/
eLedger http://www.eledger.com/
BAPort http://www.baport.com
ePeachtree http://www.epeachtree.com
BizFinity http://www.bizfinity.com/accfinity.cfm
NetVeil http://www.netveil.com/
SecuredBooks http://www.securedbooks.com/
IndiaLedger http://www.indialedger.com
NewLedger http://www.newledger.com/Dieter Simader's Sql Ledger is the only opensource webledger. http://www.sql-ledger.com/
Interparty webledger journal entries gets the P2P network developer down the road with a generalized settlement mechanism, without clearing thru banking system, and enabling a free competition in settlements services providers.
Similarly, if they provide a bare minimum of GL table, it will also make their free nets a generalized ecommerce environment, enabling a lot of other small business commerce as well as music. In effect when you have a GL table you can send invoices for anything named with XML. i.e. you have uncoupled the settlement mechanism from the free net, and you have uncoupled the other side too. You aren't limited to MP3s and you can use it for whatever else you're buying or selling.
It is amazing to me, that any developer would undergo so much work to implement a workable scheme for purchasing and payment, then hard-bind it to a single type of merchandise such as an MP3.
This is how a general ledger exchanges e-commerce transactions over a distributed filesystem: http://www.gldialtone.com/fbwspec.htm -- the research is based on http://www.gldialtone.com/STR.htm and http://www.gldialtone.com/journalbus.htm explains intercompany settlement. on the webledger host. http://www.gldialtone.com/ServersObsolete.htm
If any of these music schemes succeeds, having any webledger mechanism, then commercial webledgers could become an irrelevant footnote in comparison. The music users would be in the millions, and more importantly, millions of people would become familiar and acquainted with basic multiparty GL settlement ideas outside the banking system. You'd get a slew of linux-based ecommerce in no time.
This could also be a very, very big opportunity. It is so big that ALL of the webledger vendors should be joining together to establish XML standards for exchange of intercompany transactions between webledgers. I have submitted to www.xbrl.org a general ledger schema, http://www.gldialtone.com/rootledgerXML.htm for this purpose.
There is little controversy or doubt that accounting entries such as purchases, sales or balance sheet transfers, can be sent to an unrelated 3rd party to show up in their system as an incoming, unposted transaction batch.
It would be easy to implement, easy to understand, has NO risks, and webledger users would love it. Webledgers can vanquish the banks. The web GL becomes an ecommerce platform. All of the web GLs KNOW how badly the P2P networks need multiparty webledger settlement, and KNOW that they have the technology.
But they fear it would take a lot of development time. Strangely, after all the countless millions of programmers churned out by universities the last 25 years, everybody is still constrained more by lack of programmers than lack of money.
Rather I think the problem is the webledger vendors are too dense to understand what on EARTH the developers of peer-to-peer networks are building. This does not take a lot of time. It just takes an ability to LEARN instead of just ritualistic programming.
The web GL developer certainly would not have to build the P2P platforms. This is an interface puzzle. We can understand a P2P network. We know how to implement an accounting interface. We just need a little work on the XML JE transmitter, with a bunch of cute skins like winamp. We will give the code to WinAmp!
People are telling me that intercompany webledger settlement is a "GO". It works.
You're already building an XML interface. That's based on simple exchange of documents. Those documents can be posted on a P2P network. The question is the workflow model. Maybe some simple little C program or zope application that just puts XML docs up on the freenet so that others can pull them down, that doesn't require every MP3 user to have a (paid) web ledger account. I guarantee you this would be a one-day job for a python programmer because it has NO integration with the webledger's server, and only has one narrow, simple function. You're going to debit one person and credit the other person, then let third party settlement agents come in and liquidate these things. Artists might let you ride until it hit $5 or $10 then email you inviting you to a website to pay by credit card. Meanwhile the webledger gets HUGE publicity and cachet because the application uses XML and all those little people can submit payable and receivables to NetLedger as well as artists.
And, all the webledger XMLs still lack public UDDI registry or directory support, providing party and item code informaion to the parties. Surely that would be trivial to develop, and not controversial if the owner of the party record has granted 3rd parties permission to receive them. The UDDI directories have gone live, last week http://www.uddi.com , and they have a SOAP interface, and they're free.
TOdd * Todd F. Boyle CPA
http://www.GLDialtone.com/ * tboyle@rosehill.net
Kirkland WA (425) 827-3107 * XML accounting, webledgers, BSPs, ASPs, whatever it takes
October 18 Update (from Bob Jensen's New Bookmarks)
WOW Sites of the Week (Docster and LOCKSS) --- Thank You Steve Perkins!
Dr Jensen:
You may be interested in the Docster program being developed by librarians at www.oss4lib.org .
I like your internet tools page.
Steven C. Perkins http://members.home.net/sperkins1/
Bob Jensen recommends that readers commence learning about Docster at http://www.ala.org/alonline/ts/ts600.html
What if someone developed a Napster-like program for periodical articles? Napster, in case you haven’t been paying attention to the latest in the “Internet music wars,” is software that enables anyone connected to the Internet to easily share their MP3 music files with anyone else connected to the Internet, providing an easy way for those who seek out music to download MP3 files regardless of where they are located. Dan Chudnov, a librarian and systems developer at Yale’s Cushing/Whitney Medical Library and a leading advocate of libraries developing open source software (see his article in the August 1999 Library Journal), thinks that the Napster model is ideally suited for libraries.
“Imagine,” Chudnov said, “a new bibliographic management tool that combined file storage with a Napster-like communications protocol—Docster.” When a researcher needs an article, she can “just query Docster for it. Docster will figure out [what connected computer] has a copy of that article.” And Docster could have copyright compliance built in so that all legal requirements could be met. Chudnov’s vision of Docster is located here.
Then go to here --- http://www.oss4lib.org/readings/docster.php
Imagine all the researchers you know, with a new bibliographic management tool that combined file storage with a napster-like communications protocol -- docster. Instead of just citations, docster also stores the files themselves and retains a connection between the citation metadata and each corresponding file. Somewhere in the ether is a docster server to which those researchers connect. They're reading one of their articles, and they find a new reference they want to pull up. What to do? Just query docster for it. Docster will figure out who else among those connected has a copy of that article, and if it's found, requests and saves a copy for our friendly researcher.
Of course, we cannot do this. Libraries depend too much on copyright to attack the system so directly. But what if we focused instead on altering the napster model enough to make it explicitly copyright-compliant? After all, many cases of one researcher giving another a copy of an article are a fair use of that article. Fair use provides us with this possibility and it's not a giant leap to argue that perhaps coordinated copying through such a centralized server could constitute fair use, especially if docster didn't compete with commercial interests.
Well, it's still a big leap, but think of the benefits. Say there's an article from 1973 that's suddenly all the rage. It doesn't exist online yet, so a patron request comes to you from some other library, and you've got the journal, so you fill the request. But forty-eight other researchers want that article too. If that first patron uses docster, any of those other folks also using docster can just grab the file from the first requestor. If others don't use docster, they can request a copy from their local libraries, who -- I hope -- do use docster. Nobody has to go scan that article again, and suddenly there is redundant digital storage (see also LOCKSS).
For LOCKSS, go to to my alma mater at http://lockss.stanford.edu/ (note the FAQs)
Stanford Libraries is building "persistent access" software for libraries. The project is called: LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe).
September 8, 2000 update!
Mojo Nation at http://www.mojonation.com/
Wired News on September 8 noted that IMojo Nation "attempts to offer the best features of PGP, Napster, Distributed.net, and HavenCo, all in one nifty package."
| Enables users to directly pay content providers | Creators and distributors receive compensation for their work |
| Pays contributors of resources | You get credit for what you donate. |
| Distributes data among community members | Legal hassles are minimized |
| Provides general-purpose web-style publishing | Open access expands the market |
| Scales core technology for faster broadband connections and higher-bitrate content | Users share larger file sizes that Napster or Gnutella cannot supply due to architectural weaknesses |
You could be paid for putting your extra disk space and network bandwidth to work? Mojo Nation creates a digital marketplace for the exchange of idle disk space, bandwidth, and CPU cycles. By providing services and resources to other Mojo Nation peers you earn credit that can be used to consume content or sold for cash. Freeloaders cannot consume more than they contribute to the system; they must purchase more resources from you.
You could participate in a peer to peer network, knowing your security and privacy were protected? Strong cryptography protects messages within Mojo Nation. Pseudonymous access and relay agents protect your privacy while browsing or providing content. Simple cost recovery prevents most denial of service attacks.
You could publish your web pages without worrying about their sudden popularity? Mojo Nation distributes published content widely across all participating peers, using market-based mechanisms to control flash crowds and efficiently cache data. When a user downloads content from Mojo Nation he compensates the peer providing the data with credits for the resources consumed; popularity does not increase the cost to the publisher.
You didn't have to worry about the sudden unpopularity of your web pages, either? Mojo Nation is de-centralized and secure, once data is published it cannot be deleted or controlled. Publishers have their identities hidden with pseudonyms and can publish without fear of reprisal. Content consumers can retrieve data with as much anonymity as they desire, privacy is a simple economic decision.
Update from my May 25, 2001 Edition of New Bookmarks
Nudester Makes a Scene
An adult entertainment file-trading network is created as a beta testing ground. The dynamic filtering technology could offer peer-to-peer networks the answers they need to thrive --- http://www.wirednews.com/news/technology/0,1282,43785,00.html
Nudester works with several layers of filters and technology to ensure that child pornographers and their ilk don't invade the system. The content filter automatically blocks anyone who searches for flagged words, such as child or kid. Those searches are automatically blocked, said Maximilian Andersen, one of the Nudester developers.
Unlike Napster though, the Nudester system was launched purely as a testing ground for new technology that Andersen and his two partners developed. The trio -- who prefer to keep their legitimate business name out of stories affiliated with Nudester -- merely wanted to find a quick way to test their filtering software.
And it's exactly that type of dynamic monitoring software that many peer-to-peer systems are lacking.
"We reasonably understand some of the basics of what needs to be in a peer-to-peer network, but there are still two areas, security and management, that are murky," said Neal Goldman, research director at The Yankee Group. "If I'm going to deploy this technology, I want to know who is in my networks, and I want to be able to prevent people from joining.
"Similarly, there isn't much security in terms of protections against hacks, data stealing, taps."
Along with tackling security issues, the Nudester designers also wanted to make sure that they could monitor exactly who logged on to the system, without having the legal burden of files passing through a central Nudester server.
"We use the servers mainly to keep control of user behavior," Andersen said in an e-mail. "Users need to be authenticated by the mother server to be able to search, which makes us able to ban people that search for words like child and kid."
P2P is so important to the world that I would like to see continued dialog from other friends and acquaintances on this real paradigm shift taking place in front of our eyes and ears. The founder of Netscape, Mark Andreessen, states the following:
It's a big deal," said Andreessen, who met with Gnutella developers last week and quickly became an admirer. "It will be a way for businesses to expose what they want people to find more easily." (See below)
Networked databases from primary financial data sources (usually companies) and secondary analyses (e.g., from certified financial analysts or from teenage kids) will be networked on distributed network software such as Gnutella and FreeNet. I predict that networking in this manner will greatly enhance opportunities for assurance services to add legitimacy and selectivity to an overwhelming menu of custom reporting that will one day be available online. For example, public accounting firms may one day review assumptions and attach review watermarks to distributed network files. This is an extension of what the AICPA now allows for CPA reviews of forecast assumptions according to such techniques as those proposed by me years ago in Review of Forecasts: Scaling and Analysis of Expert Judgments Regarding Cross-Impacts of Assumptions on Business Forecasts and Accounting Measures. Studies in Accounting Research No. 19, American Accounting Association, 1983.
Bob Jensen's Initial Messages on the AECM Listserv
Bob Jensen's Second Message on Gnutella
Bob Jensen's Third Message on Wrapster and FreeNet (Why FreeNet is so scarry to publishers!)
Bob Jensen's Fourth Message on Angry Coffee
Reply From J. Paul Giolma and Bob Jensen's Third Message on Copyright Protections
Replies from Larry Gindler and Richard Newmark
Reply 1 from Neil
Hannon
Reply 2 from Neil Hannon (On Pointera)
Reply 1 from Jerry Turner
Reply 2 from Jerry Turner
Reply 1 from Jagdish Gangolly
Reply 2 from Jagdish Gangolly
Reply 3 from Jagdish Gangolly
Reply 4 from Jagdish Gangolly (addresses financial
reporting online)
Reply 5 by Jagdish Gangolly
Reply 6 by Jagdish Gangolly (on digital signatures)
Bob Jensen's Reply to Robert Holmes
Bob Jensen's Reply to Joe Helfer
Bob Jensen's Reply to Art Joy
Reply 4 from Jagdish Gangolly (addresses financial reporting online)
Reply 4 from Bob Jensen --- Gnutella Offers a New Market for Assurance Services
In Defense of Napster and Gnutella (articles from The
Washington Post and The Chronicle of Higher Education)
"The only question," Kimball said,
"is how quickly it will end up taking over the Internet."
Bob Jensen's Initial
Message on the AECM
Implications of Napster Technology for Accounting and Financial Analysis
--- May 31, 2000
The cover story entitled “The War Over Napster” by Steven Levy appeared in the June 5, 2000 issue of Newsweek Magazine, pp. 46-53. ( http://newsweek.com/nw-srv/printed/us/st/a20415-2000may27.htm ). Although most of the controversy over Napster concerns copyright and royalties, the way in which Napster broadcasts online directly from multiple servers to a single user is revolutionary and should be of great interest to accountants and financial analysts. In essence, every browser becomes a server for whatever files a person wants to share with the world.
The fight over Napster has taken on a larger dimension, involving the future of music publishing, copyright law, 21st-century ethics and the relationship of artists to their audience. Pamela Samuelson, codirector of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, fears a "civil war" between artists, technology companies and desperate "copyright holders who want to control it all." For a few years now, the emergence of friction-free Internet pathways has raised a raft of questions about the future of entertainment and media, with no shortage of Chicken Little cyberpundits predicting an intellectual-property apocalypse—for music and everything else. But it took Napster to actually bring down the sky. And though there's hope that things will ultimately work out, right now no one is quite sure how to pick up the pieces.
John Doe, a subscriber to Napster, requests a music recording by a particular artist, all available recordings by a particular artist, all recordings of a particular title, or some other category of music. Napster software then scans the hard drives of all other subscribers and provides a list of all available recordings. John Doe ultimately clicks on each available recording of interest, and the recording is automatically downloaded into his computer from persons totally unknown to him who are willing to participate in Napster. In a sense every subscriber is a receiver and a potential broadcaster of music recordings. There is no charge for receiving or broadcasting. In the case of the music industry, however, royalties are lost since John Doe receives a free copy of a recording. This has taken place for years when somebody records a radio station broadcast. But the recording quality and inability to randomly access broadcasts (i.e., listeners must wait until the radio station plays the song) made radio broadcasting less of a threat to artists and producers of music.
What does this have to do with accounting and the issue of mass standardization of financial databases and knowledge bases in general?
Think of the Accounting-Napster "broadcasters" as companies having disaggregated financial databases available through online from Accounting Napster. Suppose John Doe as an "receiver" investor or financial analyst. John Doe wants to receive the debt/equity (D/E) ratios of selected firms. In a manner similar to the way Napster users select recordings of a particular artist, John Doe downloads the selected D/E ratios of interest. This same problem exists for knowledge bases in general. When the menu of downloading options pops up for any search term (e.g., "derivatives"), then we want the choices to conform to the intended definition of that term rather than alternative definitions that spam the menu.But unlike Napster music recordings, D/E ratios are not so easily compared unless there is mass production standardization or some service like the Pricewaterhouse Coopers EDGAR Scan ( <http://edgarscan.pwcglobal.com/servlets/edgarscan> ) that will provide mass customization. This could well become the main value added by Accounting-Napster. However, Accounting-Napster will have a very difficult time without mass standardizatin of the database components such as the standardization of what constitutes “debt” versus “equity.” In this day of exotic financing (convertible debt, derivative options, mezzanine financing, etc.), it will be very difficult for Accounting-Napster without some database customization).
I do not anticipate the troubles with royalties that Napster encounters,
because most firms want their financial data broadcasted to any potential
investors. I do, however anticipate massive standardization issues.
I hope the XBRL standard setters will keep Napster in mind. See <http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/xmlrdf.htm>.
Bob (Robert E.) Jensen Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212 Voice: (210) 999-7347 Fax: (210)
999-8134 Email: rjensen@trinity.edu
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Bob Jensen's Second
Message on Gnutella --- June 1, 2000
I can't remember where I
saw this quote last week, but it was something to the effect that Madonna "went ballistic" when she discovered that her latest single recording
was free on Napster before it was even released to the public via normal music
recording channels. Can't say as I blame her!.
Here's another one on the Gnutella
paradigm shift --- http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1983259.html?tag=st
Napster-like
technology takes Web search to new level
By John Borland <mailto:jborland@cnet.com>
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
May 31, 2000, 4:00 a.m. PT
It's a big deal," said Andreessen, who met with Gnutella developers last week and quickly became an admirer. "It will be a way for businesses to expose what they want people to find more easily."
It also is one of the first moves by what has been hugely controversial file-swapping software into the realm of unquestionably legitimate Web business. That's likely to take some of the legal shadows off the technology and could spur a new phase in development.
Bob (Robert E.) Jensen Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor
of Business Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212 Voice: (210) 999-7347
Fax: (210) 999-8134 Email: rjensen@trinity.edu
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Short Reply from John Sacco on June 10, 2000
Bob, I've been passing along some items from this Naspter thread to my IT friends. They are amazed at the theoretical and far reaching implementation aspects conveyed in the thread.
BTW, her full name is Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone
Given my elementary Italian I would guess that the "e" in Ciccone is pronounced as "ay". The "i" is pronounced like an "e". Ce ccon ay. But, I'll have to ask some real Italians. Several Italian students are studying at George Mason so I'm getting a few Italian lessons.
Like Madonna, I too gave up on my full name a long time ago too -- Giancarlo Fiuggi Sacco.
It's now John F. Sacco. People spelled Fiuggi "Fudge." When I was a kid, people just said, hey, Sacco.
-John Sacco George Mason University Public and International Affairs
Bob Jensen's Third Message on Wrapster and FreeNet June 23, 2000
If music can be shared so easily on Napster and computer files can be shared so easily on Wrapster, Gnutella, Pointerra, FreeNet, etc.( http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/napster.htm ), what is to prevent books from being freely shared between online "friends?" "FreeNet has the potential to be particularly troubling."
"Book Publishers Aim to Get Ahead
Of the Electronic-Piracy Game"
By ERIN WHITE
The Wall Street Journal, June 21, 2000, p. B1.
Book publishers have been watching anxiously as their peers in the music business have been upended by digital file-trading programs like Napster that allow Internet users to pass around free copies of CDs. Seeing their recording brethren caught flat-footed as Napster use surges has book executives adopting the mantra: Don't let it happen to us.
"We don't want to be in a reactive mode the way the recording industry is," says Peter Jovanovich, former chairman of the Association of American Publishers and chief executive of Pearson PLC's Pearson Education unit. Instead, publishers are trying to control the direction of electronic books themselves and to establish piracy protections.
Publishers say it's only a matter of time before copying programs like Napster start penetrating their industry, making unauthorized copies of electronic books just as publishers expand their e-book offerings.
A free program available on the Web called FreeNet has the potential to be particularly troubling, publishers and industry executives say. Touted as a way to defeat censorship, FreeNet lets users anonymously trade any sort of file, including text and pictures. Unlike Napster, it works without a central server, meaning it's much harder to police its use and for authorities to pull the plug to shut it down. On the other hand, the lack of a central directory means the system isn't very user-friendly: Users have to know the exact name of a FreeNet file in order to retrieve it. FreeNet's designer, Ian Clarke, says an easier-to-use version should be available within months.
Other programs that could pose problems for book publishers industry include Wrapster, an outgrowth of Napster created by Napster users that lets people share text, video and other files. Another program, Gnutella, functions similarly but like FreeNet, doesn't rely on a central server.
Such copying programs aren't likely to have a major on sales of print books, industry observers say. The time and effort needed to type or scan in text to create digital versions of printed books is far greater than to copy a music CD. But if the programs prosper, book publishers could stand to lose a chunk of revenue in the fast-growing e-book market.
You can read more about FreeNet at http://www.freenet.com/
Bob Jensen's Fourth Message about Angry Coffee on June 26, 2000
A Napster-like MP3 music file sharing free software system is available from Angry Coffee at http://www.angrycoffee.com/
Napster has shut us out of their network. We think it's lame that a company that built its business through unauthorized distribution would consider Percolator to be an unauthorized use of their resources, but they're entitled to their opinion. In the meantime, we encourage you to use the OpenNAP and MyNapster networks, and to let the folks at Napster know what you think: feedback@napster.com.
We've compiled a handy group of all the links to all the software you'll need to get your music on the Web. And if you're just skimming, remember that the tutorials contain many more pointers to helpful applications and plug-ins.
Reply From J. Paul Giolma and Bob Jensen's Third Message on Copyright Protections --- June 6, 2000
Bob:
When my son came home from Rice in May, one of his stories was about 'napster' being banned from use at Rice University. It seems that students were making so much use of it that campus access was being severely affected.
Apparently, napster transactions can be identified, and users penalized.
J. Paul Giolma [jgiolma@trinity.edu]
Hi Paul,
Students who download Napster files may be violating Rice University rules, but
it is not clear that these students are doing anything illegal. Radio
stations are allowed to broadcast copyrighted songs that millions of people can
record at will in their homes and offices. According to the U.S
supreme court, home recording of
broadcasts is not illegal as long as it is for personal use. With
Napster, the problem is that anybody in the world can be a "radio
station." Furthermore, songs can be broadcast without having
to take up time to play them. (Larry Gindler and Richard Newmark reminded me later that
radio stations do pay for rights to broadcast copyrighted songs, so maybe I
overstated the case here.) The recording industry disagrees.
But because Napster simply allowed users to share their personal files with each other, Fanning and this new company claimed they were kosher. It's the digital equivalent of the piano player in the brothel: hey, we don't know what goes on up-stairs. But that excuse went only so far, especially as the record companies began to notice that the Napster Generation had commenced swapping files en masse. Whereas most start-ups get changed by the arrival of the suits, Napster had to face the arrival of the lawsuits.
http://newsweek.com/nw-srv/printed/us/st/a20415-2000may27.htm
Extensions of Napster are not so easy to sue. The problem is that the genie is out of the jug. Motion picture companies failed to nip VCR machines in the bud before these video recording machines were in millions of households. (Thus far the same mistake is not being made with DVD encoders that will copy DVD movies.) Even if Napster is shut down, the open source code for Gnetella has been let out of the jug. Freenet is even more scary for recording companies.
But with some newer systems, the searching is done in a distributed manner that can't be shut down or modulated. One of these systems is Gnutella (pronounced New-tella). Unlike Napster, Gnutella could be used to exchange not just music files but any files, including movies, text and photos—a copyright holder's nightmare.
Amazingly, the program was written by Justin Frankel, a well-known programmer at Nullsoft, a company owned by America Online—which is in the process of purchasing Time Warner, the world's biggest collection of music labels. Within hours after Gnutella was posted on the Nullsoft site, AOL executives had it withdrawn. But the code circulated through the Net and now hundreds of programmers are supporting an active Gnutella community. If Napster is shut down, says Gene Kan, one of these pro bono developers, "the postapocalyptic pirates are going to be using Gnutella."
Even more radical is Freenet, created by 23-year-old Ian Clarke, an Irish computer scientist living in London. His program is not only decentralized but has safeguards to protect the privacy and identity of users. The actual files to be downloaded will be encrypted and then randomly distributed among the community of Freenetters, who won't even know what information is stored on their own disks. (Could be songs, could be kiddie porn.) File transfers will be untraceable. Clarke's motives are political—his dream is to liberate intellectual property. "My opinion is that people who rely on copyright probably need to change their business model," he says.
http://newsweek.com/nw-srv/printed/us/st/a20415-2000may27.htm
What if the above technology is extended to a point where copying is not even necessary, i.e., users can playback RealAudio or RealVideo from a remote source machine without storing any files on their own computers? Libraries and others have been sharing books and articles for years via Telnet for years. Telnet is the Internet standard protocol for remote login service that allows users on the Internet to access programs and applications on computers in remote locations. Telnet allows a user at one site to interact with a remote timesharing system at another site as if the user's terminal were connected directly to the remote computer.
My point is that in the U.S. there will probably have to be new and very complicated legislation for copyright protections, especially if copying is not required in subsequent generations of Napster and Gnutella. In my first message I asserted that copyright protections would be of less concern in financial reporting than in music reproduction. This is probably incorrect. In the Napster era, six teenagers in a garage can record songs and make them available to the world from a single home computer that is not even a server. In the Gnutella era, one person can similarly serve up a financial analyses or hundreds or thousands of companies. Virtually all file sharing on the Internet poses immense copyright protection problems. The Napster/Gnutella type of sharing files from computers that need not even be web servers is a paradigm shift that Mark Andreesen, the billionaire founder of Netscape, calls a "big deal."
It's a big deal," said Andreessen, who met with Gnutella developers last week and quickly became an admirer. "It will be a way for businesses to expose what they want people to find more easily."
It also is one of the first moves by what has been hugely controversial file-swapping software into the realm of unquestionably legitimate Web business. That's likely to take some of the legal shadows off the technology and could spur a new phase in development.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1983259.html?tag=st
It may not matter a great deal how the U.S. and
other nations modify their copyright, tax, and other Internet-related
laws. See "A Data Sanctuary Is Born" by Declan McCullagh in
InternetWorld News Newsletter, June 4, 2000 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,36749,00.html
A windswept gun tower anchored six miles off the stormy coast of England is about to become the first Internet data haven.
A group of American cypherpunks has transformed the rusting fortress, erected by the British military during World War II to shoot down Nazi aircraft, into a satellite-linked virtual home for anyone looking for a secure place to store sensitive or controversial data.
The founders of HavenCo, which will announce operations on Monday, believe the concept will appeal to individuals and businesses looking for a "safe haven" from governments around that world that are becoming more and more interested in Internet regulation and taxation.
It's for "companies that want to have email servers in a location in which they can consider their email private and not open to scrutiny by anyone capable of filing a lawsuit," says Sean Hastings, the 32-year-old chief executive of HavenCo.
Hastings says that because a 1968 British court decision effectively recognized the basketball court-sized island as a sovereign nation called Sealand, HavenCo can provide more privacy and legal protections then anyone else on the planet.
To create HavenCo -- which will offer Linux servers for $1,500 a month -- the founders signed an agreement with Roy Bates, the quirky "crown prince" of Sealand who landed on the abandoned platform in 1966 and claimed it as an independent nation with its own currency, stamps, and flag.
The new Sealand nation's website is at http://www.sealandgov.com/.
Thus far, accountants have not established any GAAP in Sealand. It is doubtful that they ever will have accounting standards or copyright laws.
Gnutella followed on the heels of Napster in turning web browsers into selected servers of files. Suppose you want a recording of a song entitled “Company XYZ.” Using Napster web software, you can look at a menu of MP3 files on millions of personal computers that store that song by Artist A, Artist B, and Orchestra C. With a click of the mouse you can download any or all of the versions of the song “Company XYZ.” In a similar manner, Gnutella software will one day be used to share renditions of the financial analysis of Company XYZ by Analyst A, Analyst B, and Company XYZ itself. Note that there are other file sharing systems such as X:drive --- http://www.xdrive.com/.
Singers and orchestras use different arrangements and performances of a song, thereby lending their own customized renditions.. Presently, financial analysts who sell their analyses also use different definitions of many ratios (e.g., Return on Investment or Return on Capital Employed) and customized value and risk measures. Neither artists nor analysts tend to provide their crafts free on the web, although you can pay for their crafts using e-Commerce websites.
Napster technology upset the entire music industry by making it possible for free sharing of artists’ works. Similarly, Gnutella or some other Napster-like software will make it possible to freely share analysts’ works. Assuming some type of legislation will one day allow artists and analysts to be rewarded for their products being networked around the world, there are some fundamental differences between music and financial analysis. Music lovers purchase particular recordings because the customization of the song by an selected artists appeal to their listening enjoyment. Investors purchase or download free financial information and analyses, because they want to compare investment alternatives. There is a much larger chance of being misled by customized financial information. This is why government agencies, public accountants, internal auditors, and courts are charged with protecting the public from fraudulent or grossly inaccurate financial reporting.Bob (Robert E.) Jensen Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212 Voice: (210) 999-7347 Fax: (210)
999-8134 Email: rjensen@trinity.edu
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
Reply from Trey Dunn
Dr. Jensen,
Thanks so much for turning me on to this little bit of (Sealand) knowledge. It is the most interesting piece I have read in a long time. I was more interested in the island history and it's family. I did some looking around and found this site which seems to be more information than the other web site. http://www.fruitsofthesea.demon.co.uk/sealand/Amazing what someone can do if the get real creative.
Thanks again. Have a great week.
Trey Dunn Trinity University Computing Center User Services Support Tech I
Reply from Suzanne Williams on June 21, 2000
Bob,
I may be behind the discussion you've been having about Napster, but as I was getting caught up on my filing I came across a message from Michael Hoefges - the faculty member in our department (unfortunately who left the University at the end of the semester) who had the following to say about Napster and offered the following website just before he left:
If you've been following the copyright issues and litigation involving the Recording Industry Association of America and various music artists against various defendants including MP3.com, Napster.com, and even a few universities, here is a new twist. Apparently, individual students might next be brought into the fray as defendants for downloading and distributing copyrighted music files without permission of the copyright owners. Some universities (Indiana University, for instance) have blocked access through university servers to the Napster site (claiming access is using up too much bandwidth and also in fear of being held liable for contributory infringement).
...You'll find much information at the RIAA, MP3, and Napster websites.
And, he includes the following site:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1760313.html
Anyway, this may be old information to you but I send it along in case you haven't seen it.
Suzanne
Reply from Larry Gindler
According to the ASCAP site, commercial stations pay 1.615% of their total gross revenues. Stations with less than $150,000 in total revenues pay a flat fee. Non-commercial stations, such as KTRU, pay fees that are set by the Copyright office of the Library of Congress. These fees appear to be fairly small compared to the 1.6% that a commercial station pays. See the sites:
http://www.ascap.com and http://www.bmi.com
This even came up when we purchased the new phone switch. "Music on hold" must be licensed through either ASCAP or BMI. There was some question as to whether we could play KRTU as hold music under the KRTU license, since Trinity owns both the station and the phone switch. When a "off campus" call is placed on hold, KRTU is played. The swich does not play hold music for "internal calls" placed on hold (thank you J. Greene).
BMI actually sued a Girl Scout Camp a few years ago. They were singing camp fire songs without paying royalties. The case was settled and BMI wrote a provision for camps and other youth groups, but they were serious enough to bring the suit.
Larry Gindler, Director of the Trinity University Computing Center
Reply 1 Richard Newmark
Bob,
I know the point of this thread is to explore a new model for disseminating financial (and other) information and not to debate copyright issues relating to music files. However, I just wanted to point out that there is a big difference between recording music from a radio broadcast and downloading a file from Napster--the radio station has paid ASCAP (a licensing agreement) to broadcast the music while the MP3 file owner has likely not obtained permission to widely disseminate the file (I believe this is one of the points that will be debated in the current Napster lawsuit).
Here is the URL for the ASCAP Blanket Radio License agreement: http://www.ascap.com/licensing/radio/Blanket_Radio_License.pdf
Richard Newmark
Replay 2 from Richard Newmark on June 22, 2000
I don't know about a "juke-box, but PWC has come pretty offers an amazing service called Edgarscan. I believe it was Bob Jensen who oroginally posted a link to it a couple weeks ago. It is at http://edgarscan.pwcglobal.com/servlets/edgarscan. If you click on the benchmarking assistant, you will find that you have instant access to a wealth of multi-year information in graphical form. If you click on one of the data points, it takes you the SEC filing that contains the information and highlights the information for you (so you know how they calculated various ratios). It can also generate an Excel workbook for you complete with the graph and data. To me, the most unbelievable part is that it is free in terms of $$. The only thing you have to do is register by giving them your name and e-mail address. If you want to make sure that you don't get any junk e-mail from this, you can create a hotmail (or other free service) account just for junk mail. ------------------------------------------- "In tax, as in comedy, timing matters," PERACCHI v. COMM., 81 AFTR 2d 98-1756 (CA-9) 4/29/98
Richard Newmark
Department of Accounting College of Business & Public Administration
Old Dominion University (757) 683-3554 office (801) 858-9335 fax
http://PhDuh.com Dr.Newmark@PhDuh.com
Reply 1 from Neil Hannon on May 31, 2000
Bob,
Thanks for the invitation to talk about Napster. The following comments will appear in my June 4, 2000 newsletter:
Napster Technology and the Finance Department
Napster technology has the potential to transform computing as we know it. Napster allows computers to break the client-server mold and begin anew as client-plus server. Think about it. When your PC is both searching other PC’s hard drive and allowing its own hard drive to be searched, your computer is acting as a client and a server at the same time.
I see a great benefit to computing internally within a company. Financial information such as expenditure details could be placed in a Napster accessible file, controlled by a finance department member, for PC to PC access. Another internal use for Napster technology could be a cheap "office anywhere" solution. Initial applications may not have the version control or the security of a program like Lotus Notes, but later versions probably will.
Jeffrey Harlow recently pointed out in his great weekly Web site, the rapidly changing face of computing, that Napster has grown to 9 million users within its first 6 months. It took AOL 12 years to reach 9 million. (http://www.compaq.com/rcfoc/20000424.html ) Business applications for this new technology will follow shortly.
XBRL, the proposed financial reporting language based on XML, holds the promise for creating industry-uniform financial reporting. When and if XBRL is accepted and employed, it could potentially be open to Napster-like technologies for data sharing. Security issues will need to be solved, however, before companies will open up XBRL files to Napster-like Internet file sharing.
Neal Hannon, Bryant College [nhannon@TIAC.NET]
Reply 2 from Neil Hannon
Hi Bob,
This weekend, I will be working on a paper for Charlie Hoffman and the XBRL team on how to extend the use and effectiveness of XBRL by using technology like www.pointera.com to distribute financial information and analysis. I have been following your discussion list threads with interest and hope to include the best from those postings. Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated.
Neal Hannon
Bryant College
Mailto: nhannon@tiac.net nhannon@bryant.edu
http://web.bryant.edu/~nhannon
Note from Bob Jensen: You can read the following at http://www.pointera.com/
The Pointera Sharing Engine is the only service to let portals and content site users share legitimate files through a standard Web browser. Pointera's service is conceptually similar to Napster and Gnutella but focuses on legitimate file sharing. The Pointera Sharing Engine is available now.
Reply 1 from Jerry Turner on May 31, 2000
Rather than Napster, a possibly better solution to sharing accounting information is a similar program called Gnutella:
The disadvantage to Napster is that an intermediate server (administered by Napster) is required. Gnutella performs the same function, but requires no specific server. Effectively, all computers using Gnutella operate as a WAN with a built-in search engine. Gnutella allows each computer owner to designate folders from which information can be shared with other users. If this can be combined with XBRL, the sharing of accounting information via the web should be viable.
Jerry L. Turner [jturner1@MEMPHIS.EDU]
Reply 2 from Jerry Turner on June 1, 2000
Gnutella is freeware and can be downloaded from several different sources on the net. Here is a link to an interesting article discussing the difference between Napster and Gnutella:http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/may2000/nf00504g.htmI think that even though it's still in the early stages of development, it has the potential to accomplish a lot of the things you were speculating about for Napster. If companies would agree on some standardization, it would be a big step toward accomplishing what Bob Elliott and others have been predicting will happen as far as instantaneous access to financial info. Jerry L. Turner [jturner1@MEMPHIS.EDU]
Reply 3 from Jerry Turner
Bob:
I'm enjoying the debate you started. You may already have this link, but it is a good place to find out more than you ever wanted to know:http://music.zdnet.com/features/gnutellacentral/
Jerry L. Turner [jturner1@MEMPHIS.EDU]Jerry L. Turner, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Accountancy
Fogelman College of Business and Economics
The University of Memphis Memphis, TN 38152
Office: (901) 678-2536 Fax: (901) 678-2685
Home page: http://www.people.memphis.edu/~jturner1/index.html
Reply 1 from Jagdish Gangolly on May 31, 2000 on June 1, 2000
As an ardent fan of FSF (Free Software Foundation) and GNU (originally, stood for GNU is Not Unix) software, I am thrilled at the popularity of Gnutella (the homepage has had over a million hits in such a short time).
Along with Linux and other GPL (GNU Public License) based software, it appears that truly FREE (not necessarily $ free, but not shackled by restrictions) software and the associated OPEN software model is here to stay. May be the market will be more like a bazaar than like a cathedral.
I am as excited as everyone else on this listserv. However, I must respectfully beg to differ on this anarchal-capitalist tool as a vehicle for distribution of corporate financial information (and now I am NOT playing the devil's advocate).
If the credibility of corporate financial information, the very engine of the free enterprise system as we know it, is to be preserved, it is important to maintain the authenticity of such financial information. This is important to have ACCOUNTABILITY for the information. The anarchic model for the sharing of information in Gnutella, in my humble opinion, is a very poor alternative for the centralised repository architecture espoused by SEC in EDGAR. Should some one spread false information using Gnutella, it will be impossible to fix accountability, and law enforcement will be impossible (one only needs to look at the pedigree: Gnutella was concocted in order to solve the problems created by centralised nature of napster, etc.; AOL scrapped the original project of NullSoft only upon their takeover of Times Warner).
I can do no better than what Gnutella folks themselves say in their pages:
Yes, it is possible to exchange illegal files. This is entirely the choice of the people sharing them. That is, after all, the beauty of freedom of choice. We do not condone or endorse the exchange and transfer of such files, and would like to point out that doing so is entirely at your own risk.
Do we want to go back to the old days where caveat emptor ruled the world?
jagdish -- Jagdish S. Gangolly, Associate Professor (j.gangolly@albany.edu ) State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY 12222. Phone: (518) 442-4949 Fax: (707) 897-0601 URL: http://www.albany.edu/acc/gangolly
Reply from Fran Weterman on June 2, 2000
Gangolly wrote:
If the credibility of corporate financial information, the very engine of the free enterprise system as we know it, is to be preserved, it is important to maintain the authenticity of such financial information. This is important to have ACCOUNTABILITY for the information. The anarchic model for the sharing of information in Gnutella, in my humble opinion, is a very poor alternative for the centralised repository architecture espoused by SEC in EDGAR.We don't need to worry about anarchic models for information sharing as being detrimental to the authenticity of financial information. The survival instincts of some managers are sufficient test of that authenticity, or will the $3.5 million (American dollars, for us impoverished New Zealanders, who are now having to fork out two of ours for one of yours) fine be sufficient to prevent further instances.
In the cease-and-desist order, In the Matter of America Online, Inc. [34-42781] the Commission found that AOL violated the reporting and books and records provisions of the federal securities laws in connection with its accounting for certain advertising costs during fiscal years 1995 and 1996. During that period, AOL capitalized most of the costs of acquiring new subscribers -- including the costs associated with sending computer disks to potential customers -- and reported those costs as an asset on its balance sheet, instead of expensing them as incurred. AOL reported profits for six of eight quarters in fiscal years 1995 and 1996, rather than the losses it would have reported had the costs been expensed as incurred. The advertising costs improperly capitalized by AOL reached approximately $385 million by September 30, 1996, when AOL wrote them off in their entirety. More to be found at http://www.sec.gov/enforce/litigrel/lr16552.htm
Gangolly wrote: "Should some one spread false information using Gnutella, it will be impossible to fix accountability, and law enforcement will be impossible (one only needs to look at the pedigree: Gnutella was concocted in order to solve the problems created by centralised nature of napster, etc.; AOL scrapped the original project of NullSoft only upon their takeover of Times Warner)."
The power of the net to spread misinformation about accounting is becoming an increasing problem. A couple of items in which the SEC has discovered difficulties are:
http://www.sec.gov/enforce/litigrel/lr16363.htm A faked posting on a Yahoo! finance message board - resulted in a six fold increase in shares sold within two hours of the posting and ensuing price increase of .50c per share. http://www.sec.gov/enforce/litigrel/lr16453.htm Two individuals sent out judiciously worded unsolicited email (otherwise known as spam) causing the price of 57 thinly traded stocks to increase. The gullibility of some of the recipients allowed the two individuals to increase their net worth by $338,000.
It does go to show that fools are born every minute and that the caveat emptor referred to by Jagdish applies whether we like or not. Information (Accounting or otherwise) is taking on a new meaning.
Frank Weterman
Lecturer Manukau Institute of Technology Auckland
weterman [weterman@IHUG.CO.NZ]
Reply 2 from Jagdish Gangolly on June 2, 2000
On Fri, 2 Jun 2000, weterman wrote: "We don't need to worry about anarchic models for information sharing as being detrimental to the authenticity of financial information. The survival instincts of some managers are sufficient test of that authenticity, or will the $3.5 million (American dollars, for us impoverished New Zealanders, who are now having to fork out two of ours for one of yours) fine be sufficient to prevent further instances."
The derogation of caveat emptor in the modern world was meant to protect the unsuspecting investors who are left holding the bag when the managers have departed to Rio (sorry about that) with their loot.
Presently, it is possible to track the managers whereever they may be. With Gnutella, that may be problematic because of the anonymity there.
Read on the Gnutella stuff:
---- When you send a query to the GnutellaNet, there is not much in it that can link that query to you. I'm not saying it's totally impossible to figure out who's searching for what, but it's pretty unlikely, and each time your query is passed, the possibility of discovering who originated that query is reduced exponentially. More on that in the next section.
But only one person in the whole world knows that you're the original person who asked. And guess what? In GnutellaNet, we even fix that. The guy you asked originally doesn't even know that you're the person who's really asking the question. Err...searching for that strawberry-rhubarb pie recipe. So you get your answer, and you don't have to admit to anyone that you're a pantywaist. ----
To maintain the integrity of corporate financial reporting, it is important to afford corporation a modicum of protection that is granted through, for example, copyrights in other instances. I am reminded an episode a few years ago: I routinely post detailed notes of my class notes at my web site, and it seems to have gained an international following. About two years ago I was horrified to discover that a US Government site had literally advertised that a great "book" was available online for free, with a link to my pages. In other instances I had to contend with edited copies of my notes elsewhere without attribution. Now someone could claim that the edited stuff is my work (which it is not). The lesson is that for accountability to be well defined, every piece of writing should have ownership that is traceable. With Gnutella it may be difficult.
"It does go to show that fools are born every minute and that the caveat emptor referred to by Jagdish applies whether we like or not. Information (Accounting or otherwise) is taking on a new meaning."
Look at the protections provided the buyer under the laws in the US. Caveat emptor is just about a midieval concept (except for the assumptions of a reasonable person).
None of the above dampens my enthusiasm for Gnutella as a platform for information sharing, however.
Jagdish -- Jagdish S. Gangolly, Associate Professor (j.gangolly@albany.edu ) State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY 12222. Phone: (518) 442-4949 Fax: (707) 897-0601 URL: http://www.albany.edu/acc/gangolly
Reply from Robert Holmes on May 31, 2000
An opportunity for me to display my ignorance and try to get a better understanding of XBRML. My understanding of XBRML (XBML?) is that it makes it possible to searches on the Internet using XBRML tags. In my current state of ignorance it seems to me that the result will be the answer to this question. You can search for documents with certain data tags, and then plug the data into other documents (spreadsheets, databases) for analysis.
Robert C. Holmes [rcholmes@GLENDALE.CC.CA.US]
Reply from Joe Helfer on May 31, 2000
The solution would be to have participating clients agree to use XML. All the databases seem to know how to deal with this, and one can then be certain as to the" data definition" of the field of interest. Do you want to get some equity funding and run with this? The scenario would be for us to patent the algorithm/paradigm/business process and then build a prototype environment and charge folks to participate. Do you want to go 50/50 on this?
joe helfer [helferjoe@KMRS.COM]
Reply from Art Joy on May 31, 2000
Bob Jensen has done it again. His extrapolation of the Napster technique to financial reporting is ingeneous. However, while the technology may make it possible, will we want it? I, personally, would not want outsiders "crawling" through my database, gathering up data