I'd never even heard of it until this article. http://edonkey.com/ Online file swapping endures http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-07-11-fileswap_x.htm By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY LOS ANGELES — Despite entertainment industry attempts to curb online song and movie swapping with lawsuits and education campaigns, more people than ever are using peer-to-peer services. BigChampagne, which tracks Internet file sharing, says 8.3 million people were online at any one time in June using unauthorized services like Kazaa and eDonkey — up 19% from 6.8 million in June 2003. The majority of files being traded were music, BigChampagne says. p*rn videos and images were the second-biggest category. Since September, the Recording Industry Association of America has filed 3,500 lawsuits against music sharers who uploaded songs to the Internet. It has settled about 600 of them for fines ranging from $2,000 to $15,000. Phil Leigh, senior analyst at research firm Inside Digital Media, says the findings are the strongest evidence to date that the lawsuits aren't scaring people away from so-called P2P programs. "Many just don't think they'll be caught," he says. And users have become savvier about adjusting software so they can't be traced. RIAA President Cary Sherman says the rise of legitimate alternatives such as Apple's iTunes Music Store shows the success of the litigation. ITunes was poised over the weekend to reach 100 million songs sold. BigChampagne says 1 billion songs were available for free trading in June. That compares with 820 million a year ago. But Sherman says many song files now are "spoofs" the industry adds to the system to make life harder for swappers: a screeching sound effect instead of a Top 10 single, for instance. After the initial wave of lawsuits, research firms released studies suggesting people were spending less time on the peer-to-peer services. "What people say and what they do are two different things," says BigChampagne CEO Eric Garland. "People were not willing to be forthright and admit to something that might get them sued. The fact is, peer-to-peer usage is much more widespread than it was a year ago." Savvy file traders are spending less time at Kazaa, the top peer-to-peer service. A haven for adware, spyware and potential viruses, Kazaa's usage dropped from a peak of 5.6 million active users in October to 3.8 million in June, says BigChampagne. Users have migrated to two other unauthorized services, Israel-based iMesh and eDonkey in New York, which have less spyware and faster downloads, Leigh says. Leigh says the only way the industry will put a dent in the peer-to-peer services is for the legitimate alternatives to become more user-friendly. Songs purchased at iTunes can play easily only on iPods, while songs at Sony's Connect service work only with Sony products. "Until they fix those speed bumps and fill the holes in their catalogs — there are still too many missing songs — people are going to stick with the free services," Leigh says.
