- Why peer-to-peer is efficient?
BitTorrent
BitTorrent is one of the most popular peer-to-peer file sharing protocols used on the Internet and it accounts for a significant amount of traffic on the Internet.
Music & Audio
- Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails have offered free downloads of their last few albums. For the higher quality (i.e., larger file sized) versions of the tracks, Reznor has chosen to use BitTorrent to distribute his music. In a text file distributed with the album Ghotst I, Reznor states “Now that we're no longer constrained by a record label, we've decided to personally upload Ghosts I, the first of the four volumes, to various torrent sites, because we believe BitTorrent is a revolutionary digital distribution method, and we believe in finding ways to utilize new technologies instead of fighting them..." He has also released via BitTorrent the original Garageband files for fans to mix and create new content.
- Subpop Records has made some of its artists' content available for free on BitTorrent, including The Shins, The Postal Service, Flight of the Conchords, Constantines, Hot Hot Heat, and David Cross.
- Indie rock label Saddle Creek has distributed an exclusive-to-BitTorrent free sampler over, as well as singles from their popular artists such as Bright Eyes, Mayday,and Cursive.
- Music sharing portal Jamendo offers a “free, legal and unlimited” music from over 5500 artists via BitTorrent.
- Public domain audiobooks from LibriVox.org available at legaltorrents.com
- FMT has been releasing medical tourism podcasts of their interviews via bittorrent portal mininova.org
File Sharing
Tribler
Tribler, developed at the Delft University of Technology and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, is an open source social interactive Peer-to-Peer client with integrated search engine, video and audio player.
Private File Sharing
Pando
Pando is a personal P2P program, much like BitTorrent but geared toward those looking for a simple and secure means of file transfer. Users may email, IM, or post to their website a .pando file. When the intended recipient downloads the .pando file, the Pando software contacts an secure Pando server (much like the “tracker” in the BitTorrent system) and allows the sender to initiate a direct P2P transfer to the recipient.
Peercasting
Like broadcasting, peercasting is a method of streaming content to consumers. But it differs from traditional broadcasting because the consumers of peercasted content are simultaneously broadcasters.
Tribler
Tribler, developed at the Delft University of Technology and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, is an open source social interactive Peer-to-Peer client with integrated search engine, video and audio player.
Private File Sharing
Pando
Pando is a personal P2P program, much like BitTorrent but geared toward those looking for a simple and secure means of file transfer. Users may email, IM, or post to their website a .pando file. When the intended recipient downloads the .pando file, the Pando software contacts an secure Pando server (much like the “tracker” in the BitTorrent system) and allows the sender to initiate a direct P2P transfer to the recipient.
Peercasting
Like broadcasting, peercasting is a method of streaming content to consumers. But it differs from traditional broadcasting because the consumers of peercasted content are simultaneously broadcasters.
- The Peer Distributed Transfer Protocol (PDTP) specification is a peer-to-peer system that provides streaming downloads of content which originates from a central server. These files are shared amongst the peer network which allows the aggregate bandwidth capacity of the network to grow naturally with the number of clients connected. DistribuStream, a joint venture between the University of Colorado Department of Computer Science and Medioh! has implemented PDTP into an application which allows anyone to “set up a lo cost on-demand streaming media server”.
- P2PTV is another form of peer-to-peer streaming but is more focused on the re-broadcasting of traditional media content. Popular examples of this technology include Sopcast, TVU Player, CoolStreaming, Zattoo and IT-Koo.