Peer to peer file sharing has become extremely popular over the past couple of years particularly with the younger Internet users. P2P, as it is more widely known, can be very useful when used for legitimate purposes. P2P file sharing helps the P2P client applications for files to upload and download over the P2P network services. But it also has a dark side. The most widely publicized has to do with copyright infringement. This becomes an issue when the user allows files on the system to be shared with others. When the user does this, he or she then become a provider of the information and can violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

• Information on how to disable sharing on many of the P2P programs and how to use file sharing can be found at About Peer to Peer . Information on how to do this with Kazaa can be found at Wikipedia.

A lesser-known side affect to P2P is the Spyware and Trojan software that can end up on the system as a result. This can happen as the result of Spyware or Trojan software contained within the application itself or as the result of downloading what the user thought was a good file that was actually harmful to the PC. This is just another good reason to make sure that the anti-virus software is up-to-date.

There is a good article on the dangers of peer to peer file sharing located at the following:  PCMag.