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It's
Not Always Nice to Share
by
Gary B. Hoffman
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Ever since we were small, we've heard our mothers tell us, "It's nice
to share." In everyday life, that is true. Even in genealogy, sharing
what we know about our ancestors usually gets us more information about
them and other ancestors. Today's genealogy programs and the GEDCOM
file format make it easy to share genealogy data from one computer to
another. I've written several articles for this web site about sharing,
trying to make it easy for genealogists to share files with each other.
But I have a new tune about sharing. With regard to computer files
on the Internet, there are times when it's not nice to share. This is
especially true when you aren't aware that you are sharing.
Windows and Mac OS computers have something called "file sharing."
When you turn on this option, whoever connects to your computer can
copy files from your shared folders. If you share your entire hard drive,
all your files are available to be copied. This kind of file sharing
is called peer-to-peer because each person is sharing his or her own
files with others.
Many offices have a dedicated file sharing computer called a server.
Rather than log in to each other's computers, workers log in to the
server where access is strictly controlled. Usually, the server's manager
takes care to back up files regularly to make sure they are safe from
harm or loss. This is seldom the case with peer-to-peer file sharing.
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August
17, 2000
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Where servers are connected only to office computers, file sharing
remains confined to the network in the office. However, many servers
today are also connected to the Internet and can share files using
Internet file sharing protocols. Using the Internet, a file server
can share files with workers many miles away and even across the
globe. A serious problem arises when you turn on file sharing
on your own computer and enable the Internet protocols. This means
that anyone can connect to your computer and you may not know
it. Under Windows 98, the Internet protocols are turned on automatically
so when you share files, others on the Internet can see them if
they have your Internet address. That is an unpleasant surprise
if you aren't aware of it.
This is less of a problem at home if you connect to the Internet using
a dial-up modem because you can only share files when you are connected
to the Internet. But more and more of us are using the new, always-on
services such as DSL or cable modem service. With these services, your
computer is connected to the Internet — and could be sharing files
— any time it is turned on. |
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A
problem arises when you turn on file sharing on your
computer and enable the Internet protocols. Anyone
can connect to your computer and you may not know
it.
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The Napster music service is an example of a new type of file sharing
system that uses the peer-to-peer model and a central index of files.
To download a particular piece of digital music, you connect your Napster
program to the Napster server and check their index, which tells you
which other Napster user has that file on their computer. If you choose
to download it, you are connected directly with that person's computer,
and the Napster server steps out of the way. The Gnutella service (pronounced
new-tella) dispenses with the central index and has no focal point;
it's all peer-to-peer connections. Other, similar services are being
introduced that handle other kinds of files, including pictures and
videos. This seems pretty nice.
However, the fact that most of the files used by Napster and similar
services were copied off of commercial CDs seems to have the copyright
owners very upset. There is a high-visibility lawsuit underway to determine
who is liable for the blatant copyright infringement that these services
facilitate. Copyright infringement is not nice. The Internet seems to
facilitate all kinds of copyright violations; recently the cross-stitch
pattern publishers sued their customers who scan their copyrighted printed
charts and trade them via e-mail.
But this article is not about copyrights and genealogy. (I've written
plenty about that on this Web
site.) Rather, I'm concerned about the security aspects of running Napster
or other sharing programs on your computer. Investigations at my university
have confirmed that a small adjustment in the Napster or Gnutella programs
can allow the entire hard drive to be available to anyone on the Internet,
not just the music files. This essentially turns any Napster user's
computer into an Internet file server. And that is not nice, either.
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Now, you may think that Windows or Mac OS "file sharing"
might be a convenient way to share your genealogy files with others,
including GEDCOMs, pictures, and source documents. But I don't
recommend it. After all, do you really want just anybody connecting
to your computer at any hour to copy any file from your hard drive?
Instead, I recommend setting up a Web site with your Internet
service provider or another online service, such as Genealogy.com's
family home
pages. When you do this, you choose which files to
make available to the rest of the world, rather than exposing
your entire hard drive to the public Also, I suggest you turn
off file sharing on your computer unless you are very careful
about security settings. Here are some services offering Internet
file storage and sharing services, the nice way:
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To
share your genealogy files with others, I recommend
setting up a Web site with your Internet service provider
or another online service.
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Gary Hoffman has
been involved in genealogy research for over 30 years. He is former president
of the Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego and is CGSSD's Webmaster. Currently
a computer manager at the University of California's San Diego campus, he recently
received a law degree and passed the California bar exam. His articles on technical
and legal issues relating to genealogy have appeared in several online publications
and newsletters and he is a regular speaker at national genealogy conferences.
E-mail: ghoffman@ucsd.edu Copyright
2000 by Gary B. Hoffman. All Rights Reserved. Any republication of this
article requires the express consent of the author.
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