Fergus Cassidy

Share types

THE difference between friends and acquaintances can be borderline sometimes. Wedding or birthday invitations provide a strong sieve and Christmas card lists give annual answers.

But one of the best ways to know friends from acquaintances is an invitation to join a hey-presto money-making scheme. Nothing tweaks the radar like being asked to send money to five strangers on a list or buy pyramidal-priced water purifiers and then do the same onto others.

Lower down the free lunch food chain, Sky television has a 'sign up a friend' discount scheme. From tupperware to cosmetics and aluminum windows to underwear, there have always been potentially rich pickings in social networks of one kind or another.

Look at what's happening to an old friend, Joey Tribbiani. Television stations around the world have paid for exclusive broadcast rights to his new series Joey. Ireland has been ahead of the pack and is up to episode three. Channel Five has the British rights and the series begins next month.

Yet within hours of the first episode being broadcast in the US last year, millions of people were able to download it using file-sharing networks across the internet. A bandwidth boom, allied with the appearance of super-strength networking software means that television programmes and movies are no longer a downloader's dream.

The same nightmare which kept music industry executives awake at night threatens to turn the screen barons into insomniacs.

Signing from the same hymn sheet as their music counterparts, the prosecutions against individual file-sharers have already begun.

And the booming software technology of peer to peer (p2p) networking may soon show up in some court's cross hairs.

Will this strategy work? Well thanks to the victory of the humble VCR in 1984, there is no iceberg up ahead. The film industry raged against the machine, right up to the US Supreme Court. It ruled that the VCR was not illegal. Rewinding can't undo that historic precedent.

On the other hand if the television and film industries fast forward to what's happening with the music business today, they can't miss the gosling chirps of digital downloading and another golden egg.

The massive success of legal music download sites like Apple's iTunes means the possum playing antics of the major record labels have stopped. Sales of legally-downloaded music grew 1000% last year. The yellow brick road is turning into a motorway.

Some in the television industry are awake. According to the BBC's Ashley Highfield, television piracy left unchecked "is a huge problem, addressed proactively it's manageable. Develop enough legitimate downloading services and digital rights measures and you can combat the majority".

Speculation abounds that Apple's new Mac Mini computer will be followed shortly by an iTunes equivalent for movies and television programmes.

Last week Google launched a beta search service for television programmes. The site's frequently asked questions includes: "Q) Can I play the videos that Google finds? A) Not yet, but stay tuned".

Far from destroying the music, film and television industries, the rise of p2p networks has massive potential. Business models for using this unique method of file-sharing are already emerging.

Most are based on the strengths of p2p software - networks and better use of bandwidth. One idea has the potential to make massive money for the record companies.

Person A can listen to a song three times. If they like it, they pay a small fee. The song is then added to the music collection on their hard drives and is accessible to others on that network. If the song is requested by person B the process continues. To infinity and beyond. Every download delivers a cut to the record company.

Describing itself as "an innovative communication project", the P2P Manifesto was also launched last week. Part of it read: "File sharing is evolving to 'social sharing' where individuals share all kinds of socially interesting information.

"The swappers of today are becoming 'file networkers', individuals capable of creating large social networks that soon will be the most desired allies of the majors [record labels]".

Move over Tupperware.