Senator Diane Feinstein Wants to know about the Benefits of P2P

Mon Aug 30 20:33:00 UTC 2004

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 11:27:12 -0700 (PDT), Henry Linneweh <hrlinneweh at sbcglobal.net> writes:

> So I would like some professional expert opinion to
> give her on this issue since it will effect the
> copyright inducement bill. Real benefits for
> production and professional usage of this technology.

In my opinion, P2P distribibuted systems are still an active research
area and the more interesting applications aren't out of the academic
research phase yet. Current prototype p2p systems include a
storage-accounted remote backup systems (SCRIVENER) and a webcache
(SQUIRREL). I know of at least two other prototype applications at
Rice that are as yet unpublished.

  http://www.cs.rice.edu/CS/Systems/SQUIRREL/default.htm
  http://www.cs.rice.edu/CS/Systems/Scrivener/default.htm

We won't know how many of these will turn into production systems for
another few years. Of course, if INDUCE passes, then an unknown
portion of this research area would be made legally questionable. Any
consideration such a far-reaching legal change is at the minimum, very
premature.

Scott