Grouper is a P2P file sharing tool that allows private groups of people
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- Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 17:31:53 -0400
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Grouper is a P2P file sharing tool that allows private groups of people
to easily distribute files among themselves with no limitation in file
types and size, and with integrated IM (instant messaging) and security
encryption.
http://www.grouper.com/about/
Download
http://www.grouper.com/download/
Grouper allows groups of 30 or less to share files over an encrypted
p2p "network"... and that's too much for the entertainment industry.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-grouper12apr12,0,1076225.story
Testing Copyright Limits
Jennifer Urban, a law professor at USC, wanted to watch home movies of
her 7-month-old nephew Peter in England, but nothing seemed to work.
The videotapes and DVDs were in the wrong format, and the digital
movie files were too big to e-mail.
Then Urban hit on a software program called Grouper. And in addition
to movies of her nephew, Grouper offers Urban, who specializes in
copyright law, insight into how technology is testing the boundaries
of copyright in a digital age.
Like Kazaa and other popular file-sharing programs, Grouper allows
Urban to copy movies and pictures of young Peter directly from her
brother and sister-in-law's computer without worrying about formats or
oversized e-mail attachments. Unlike those global networks with
millions of users, though, Grouper also lets Urban pick and choose
with whom she shares online - and sets a strict limit of 30 people per
group.
"I'm very attracted to the privacy afforded by having a private group
protected by encryption, particularly for sharing letters, family
photos, movies, etc.," Urban said. "This isn't the case with other
peer-to-peer networks."
What makes Grouper troubling to some entertainment industry executives
are the other things people can do with it. For example, the program
lets people copy bootlegged Hollywood movies and listen to songs on
one another's computers, all without paying a dime to the studios,
artists or songwriters.
Grouper Network Inc.'s founders, Josh Felser and Dave Samuel, say the
built-in limits of their peer-to-peer software make it a poor
substitute for more controversial file-sharing programs such as Kazaa
and Grokster, which are hotbeds for piracy. In addition to limiting
the size and accessibility of groups, they say, their program requires
songs to be streamed - that is, played through the Internet - not
downloaded.
Those limits may not add up to a legal service, argues Nicolas Firth,
chairman of BMG Music Publishing Worldwide.
"I'm not so sure that I see a big distinction between this and, say,
Grokster because you're at 30 people," Firth said. "Where are you
going to draw the line at what constitutes unlicensed use of
copyrighted music?"
Firth's question has no clear answer yet, copyright experts say. Nor
have the courts settled many issues surrounding streaming, such as
whether streaming a song to a private group online violates a
songwriter's copyright over "public performance."
snip
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