Plug pulled from file-sharing hub

By PETER GRIFFIN

The door to a major local music file-sharing hub has slammed shut with internet provider Orcon pulling the plug on www.p2p.net.nz and narrowly avoiding legal action from the Recording Industry Association.

Orcon has taken down the site, which is registered by the internet provider's managing director, Seeby Woodhouse.

Woodhouse claims to have stopped hosting a popular file-sharing hub on Orcon's servers.

The hub, and many others like it which are still in existence, acts as a trading point for private collectors of music mp3 files, blockbuster movies in digital form and pirated software.

The gigabytes of illegally distributed content are not hosted centrally, but stored on the individual computers of users connecting to the hubs to trade using software clients such as DC++.

That led Woodhouse to defend Orcon's involvement with p2p.net.nz, telling the Herald last month that the internet provider could not be held responsible for the activities of its users.

But bad publicity around the involvement of Orcon, which has 35,000 customers and is trying to establish itself as a credible player in the internet provider market, appears to have changed Woodhouse's mind.

"[www.p2p.net.nz] looks to be something that is hard to police and we want to stay on the right side. There was no commercial benefit in us running it," he said.

Orcon's apparently unprompted move to pull the service has saved it from legal action from the Recording Industry Association.

The association had hired an electronic forensics expert to gather evidence against Orcon and the users of the file-sharing services.

Association chief executive Terrance O'Neill Joyce said he had a forensic report on the hub's activity and had intended to proceed with legal action either through a civil case or by going to the police.

"There was infringing material on the [hub] and it was downloadable. I'm pleased that Woodhouse has responded intelligently. We've both saved ourselves a lot of money," he said.

Woodhouse had recruited the services of music industry lawyer Christopher Hocquard to ascertain his legal position.

O'Neill Joyce said similar file-sharing hubs or those looking to fill the gap left by p2p.net.nz would be pursued.

"It's very important that people don't play games and try and re-introduce these services disguised as something else."

In reality, however, file-sharing hubs are likely to continue to thrive below the radar screen of the association, which believes internet providers need to take more responsibility in policing file-sharing.

"The ISP has got to accept responsibility just as the fence is responsible when the police arrive and find stolen property," said O'Neill Joyce. The association has just won a settlement in a case that took three years to extract an admission of guilt from the copyright infringer.

But O'Neill Joyce said the case had been extremely expensive to pursue.

Woodhouse still saw huge merit in the "direct connect" technology underpinning p2p.net.nz's distribution system, which he described as a file protocol effectively built it on top of "internet relay chat".

IRC is a popular tool for communicating and sharing files.

He described his association with the file-sharing community as a learning experience.