LeecherProblem
Leechers are freeloaders who take without giving anything back.
There has been many attempts to battle this problem. Among these is the eMuleCreditSystem.
However, is this really a problem? As the eMule experiment shows us it can cause more problems than it helps.
The problem is that not giving makes no different than giving. People are not rewarded for sharing. As using ones upload bandwidth potentially could make other things (surfing etc) slower it can be considered negative to upload. (This is psychological, people decide upon what they believe, not the facts they don't know.) Since it is not rewarding and potentially slightly hurting to upload, some people use 0-upload patches, etc.
An article discussing these issues and raising some more is here: http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2000/12/01/shirky_freeloading.html
It particularly questions whether a CreditSystem is worth its side effects. The main argument is that a CreditSystem creates an artificial value on something that otherwise would be given freely. This creates the anxiety of wasting the resource, bandwidth, and this actually increase the cost of giving, thus making people less generous. Altough this doesn't kill the problem it highlights an important aspect when trying to defeat it.
A solution could be a system that uses fear the same way RIAA (Record Industry Ass. of America) do or tries to do. If people fear leeching they will try to avoid it. I'm thinking of a system of random checks. This makes the effects of leeching not as easy to predict anymore and the safest is not to leech. How about it? /Vaste
Languages: English