DOWNLOADING DATA

As we’ve seen in the earlier section, the Internet is a vast source of information. We can of course view all this data off the Web itself, but at times it becomes necessary to store the information on our personal computers, or at some place where it is easily retrievable. Also, some data, such as video files, cannot be viewed as a streaming file if your Internet connection isn’t fast enough. Another major need is that of downloading applications or software onto your computer. All this brings us to the question—where is the one site that will give us all the data that we need?

The answer is, as of now, there is no site from where you can download anything under the sun. That would be tantamount to downloading the entire Internet. The Net has a number of sites that cater to specific download needs. www.Softpedia.com and www.Download.com are some of the more popular destinations. A large number of sites also offer screensaver and wallpaper downloads. Downloading music or movies without paying for them is illegal, and is a copyright violation. The same holds for downloading text or PDFs of books, whose copyrights are not in the public domain. The download facility has been one of the largest reasons for the proliferation of software, music and movie piracy. Some downloaders available today are able to restrict illegal downloads. A spin-off of the popularity of downloads has been P2P file sharing networks.

Technically, these are similar to regular download techniques. In case of a download from a major Web site, you would be accessing their server and download manager. In a P2P network, you download data from a peer’s computer. With stricter implementations of IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) all over the world, the world of downloading anything for free might just end.