File sharing

A computer file can be e-mailed to customers, colleagues and friends as an attachment. It can be uploaded to a Web site or FTP server for easy download by others. It can be put into a "shared location" or onto a file server for instant use by colleagues. The load of bulk downloads for many users can be made with simplicity by the use of "mirror" servers or peer-to-peer networks. The source and authenticity of the file received may be checked by digital signatures or by MD5 or other message digests.

These simple features of the Internet, over a world-wide basis, are changing the basis for the production, sale, and distribution of anything that can be reduced to a computer file for transmission and includes all sorts of office documents, publications, software products, music, photography, video, animations, graphics etc. This in turn is causing seismic shifts in each of the accessible industry associations, such as the RIAA and MPAA in the United States that previously controlled the production as well as distribution of these products.