Hello Nik, As Steven notes, ratios function as a way of ensuring that members contribute as well as leech -- or even just think before they go ahead and download everything in sight. The practicalities of content distribution (bandwidth use, content provision, legalities etc) limit choices to, for example: a) sustaining a closed community of trusted individuals with a high barrier to entry - maybe 'initiation ceremonies' such as those Stephen mentions. b) opening to the public, but changing the bandwidth equation by exploiting someone else's resources (see the 'pubstro' paper below) c) using a distributed protocol (bittorrent etc) 'The pubstro phenomenon: Robin Hoods of the Internet' by Richard Braithwaite explores a group of individuals engaged in exploiting servers in order to create 'pubstros' ('computers that have been cracked into and had an FTP server installed'). One rule enforced within the group stipulated the need to 'do something to remain [a] member and not only leech'. The rules for a certain project included that 'Prospective members must establish a pub or pubstro of at least 1.5 Gigabytes in order to be granted membership', must 'post [at least] 2.5 Gigabytes per month to maintain membership' etc. That said, the code of ethics of this group also included 'Equity: Never post a pub or pubstro that isn't ratio free! Warez should be free for everyone.' Another report on the activities of warez groups, including discussion of access to FTP servers as reward for services rendered, appears in Basamanowicz and Bouchard (2012). Overcoming the Warez Paradox: Online Piracy Groups and Situational Crime Prevention. Policy and Internet, Volume 3, Issue 2, pages 1–25, May 2011. DOI: 10.2202/1944-2866.1125 'Of the court cases examined, 16 individuals had the primary role of supplying content to the group (Table 1). Successful suppliers are rewarded with accounts on lavish FTP sites and peer approval, while failures or lack of contribution can be punished by removal of FTP accounts or banishment from the group. For example, Jeffery Lerman, a supplier for the group Kalisto, a subsidiary of Fairlight, was granted with access to at least eight FTP servers controlled by the group as a reward for his contributions to the group (USA v. Lerman, Case Number 3:05CR50. D. CT, 2007); in contrast, Christopher Eaves, a supplier for the group aPC, was threatened with banishment from the group because of his lack of contribution (USA v. Eaves, Case Number 1:07CR00140, E.D. VA, 2007).' Also see discussion of 'top sites' on p. 16, which talks directly about the use of ratios in distribution of warez. There's also Lang, D. (2004). Musik im Internet: MP3: Empirische Befunde und motivationstheoretische Rechtfertigung, which talks a bit about the use of ratio FTP servers in MP3 music sharing. Although there is, as Steven notes and the pubstro example shows, community resistance to the enforcement of ratios, the same idea still shows up in the weirdest of places. As recently as 2009, Scribd implemented a fairly similar concept: http://mayank.name/2009/06/20/want-to-download-a-file-from-scribd-upload-one... Cheers, Emma On 2014-08-17 16:44, Lovaas,Steven wrote:
Hello, Nik
I'm not sure how much detail you're seeking...
The general notion is that setting a download/upload ratio should encourage people to contribute rather than just freeloading. Or, in slightly more positive language, to maintain the flow of fresh content. In practice, it tends to annoy people and drive them to other services ;) Here's a thread from 2001 showing community resistance to the notion: http://forums.justlinux.com/showthread.php?26703-Need-ftp-server-for-ratio-s...
I've also seen it used as a sort of group initiation threshold for
sites specializing in "warez", the notion being that you have to prove that you're in the game before you benefit from the group's work.
Steve
======================== Steven Lovaas IT Security Manager Colorado State University Steven.Lovaas@ColoState.edu 970-297-3707 ========================