How Skype and Kazaa changed the net

[Steve]

As much as we hate the spyware and viruses that seem to plague files acquired through Peer-to-Peer applications, (especially those files you know you shouldn't be downloading anyway...) P2P has without a doubt changed the way we look at the Internet. Kazaa is known to just about anyone with an Internet connection and with the currning VoIP uprising, Skype, from the creators of Kazaa, is shaping up to be just as influential. BBC's Click Online interviewed Niklas Zennström, the man behind these two programs:

It all started while he was working for the European low cost telco Tele 2 in the mid-1990s, where he met his friend and colleague Janus Friis.

By March 2001, the two of them had created Kazaa and were cashing in on the file-swapping boom kicked off by Napster.

What made Kazaa important was that it avoided having centralised lists of what people were swapping.

This arm's length approach kept it, and other file-sharing services like it, out of trouble.

[exAndrzej]

The main issue here is that the vast majority of computer/web users do not want to be criminals

They are happy to pay for a solid, fast, 'always on' broadband connection and run VoIP services that let them speak with friends across the globe

Also, they are happy to pay something for the music that they want to listen to etc...

...but they have a certain mind-set that has been created by society over the past 30+ years

Firstly, we don't pay for radio

Ignoring the BBC-type channels for a second, if you are lucky enough to tune your car stereo to the right channel at the right time... you get exactly the song you want to hear at exactly the right time and it is free - right ?

Well, not quite

Someone is paying - just not you (directly)

Secondly, we are now an 'on demand' society

Satellite viewers are used to having tons of channels available 24-hours a day

We record with ease - especially with 'Sky+' type services

PC-based systems and the new set-top modules with 160GB+ of space will enable you to store at least 20 video tape's worth of stuff at any one time

Thirdly, we had the Napster & Co boom a few years back which meant suddenly hard drives across the globe were filled with 'free stuff'

These are the problems:-

1) You do pay for radio - but not directly. You agree to be an advertiser's target audience and - if enough people buy the products that they are selling - the content carrys on being broadcast

2) No one will flick channels all day long in the hope that one of the stations will miraculously start playing 'Numb' by Linkin' Park at the precise moment that they arrive at that frequency. Any service - phone or music - must be on demand or it will die on its feet

3) The amount of content out there is huge - but far from complete. You may get the 4 most popular tracks from the album that you are searching for... but you will not necessarily get the other 8.


The answer ?

Broadband suppliers need to look at charging you £10 ($18) more a month and providing a massive back catalogue of 'virus-free' stuff

That could even be free with a 'top of the range' satellite package

Thoughts ?