peer

Facebook may be wielding the power of the polls with peer pressure. According to a new study, when users see that their friends have voted, they're far more likely to go vote themselves.

Titled "A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization," the study examines the influence of Facebook friends on voting behaviors. It looks specifically at the U.S. elections in 2010 and concludes that the social network's "get out the vote" message brought more than 300,000 more voters to the polls.

"Our study suggests that social influence may be … Read more

Zaarly launched virtual storefronts for handpicked sellers in San Francisco today, showing a dedication to the merchants that seems unprecedented for a site of its kind.

Zaarly, which hosts listings for peer-to-peer goods and services, has taken the beauty of a site like AirBnB or Etsy and applied it to the Craigslist-like service. But the company takes it one step further -- hiring hundreds of photographers from across the country to shoot photos of each merchant and creating a professional-looking Web page for sellers to showcase their goods and services.

CEO Bo Fishback said he wants Zaarly to raise the … Read more

Bitcoin, the peer-to-peer currency that's been gaining in popularity, appears to be getting ready to take the leap from the digital world to the real world.

Exchange service BitInstant is creating a Bitcoin-funded card that would function as a standard debit/credit card and would be honored where ever MasterCard is accepted, according to the transcript of an interview allegedly conducted wth BitInstant co-founder Charlie Shrem. During the interview, published by Coding in My Sleep, Shrem says the card might launch within the next six to eight weeks.

The cards would be issued by a "major international bank&… Read more

A new version of the Kelihos spamming botnet has been sidelined by using the peer-to-peer distribution mechanism to basically hijack it, researchers announced today.

The botnet, which was used mostly to distribute spam for Canadian pharmaceutical firms but also stole bitcoin wallets containing virtual currency, was about three times larger than an earlier variant, according to CrowdStrike, the security firm that worked with Kaspersky, Dell SecureWorks, and Honeynet Project to shut down the botnet.

The researchers reverse-engineered the malware code and wrote their own software that rerouted infected computers to communicate with servers controlled by researchers and law enforcement rather … Read more

When I first talked with Zaarly CEO Bo Fishback (see Zaarly: Not nearly as crazy as it appears), he told me he had $1 million in "announced" funding, wink wink. "There's more?" I asked? Yes, he said, he had millions of dollars "waiting at the door" for his peer-to-peer commerce startup. But he was keeping it a secret. Even from his employees.

Fishback is a big personality. He's a passionate, aggressive guy. This could have been just bluster. Certainly I've heard this kind of BS from entrepreneurs before, sometimes just weeks … Read more

Today on preGame we've got an early look at Rage, hitting consoles and PC on October 4. Then we'll battle a giant colossus in our demo of the PS2 HD reboot for PlayStation 3, Shadow of the Colossus. Shadow makes up one half of the highly anticipated rerelease, the Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection. For CNET's full take on the game, check out our review here.

Today's demo of Rage includes strong language and violence. Viewer discretion is advised.

Want to be a part of our live taping? Make sure you head to http://cnet.com/live/pregame … Read more

Some of the country's largest Internet service providers are poised to leap into the antipiracy fight in a significant way.

After years of negotiations, a group of bandwidth providers that includes AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon are closer than ever to striking a deal with media and entertainment companies that would call for them to establish new and tougher punishments for customers who refuse to stop using their networks to pirate films, music and other intellectual property, multiple sources told CNET.

The sources cautioned that a final agreement has yet to be signed and that the partnership could … Read more

Lime Wire, the company that helped people obtain perhaps billions of songs illegally, is close to forking over a "significant" amount of money to settle a copyright suit filed against it by the Recording Industry Association of America, sources close to the discussions told CNET.

The two sides were still negotiating this morning, but a deal could be finalized as soon as today, the sources said. They didn't specify the exact settlement figure and cautioned that the talks could still break down.

Should a deal be finalized, it would put an end to a 5-year-old copyright case and close the book on Lime Wire, the company behind the peer-to-peer system of the same name that the big four record companies alleged cost them billions of dollars and thousands of employees their jobs.

After a U.S. District Judge found Lime Wire and founder Mark Gorton personally liable for copyright infringement and ordered the company to cease operations, the case then moved to assessing damages. Over the past two weeks, a jury in Manhattan was hearing evidence in the case as they determined what amount Lime Wire and Gorton would have to pay. If they found he deserved to pay the maximum under the law, Gorton could be required to pay as much as $1.4 billion.

Ethan Smith at The Wall Street Journal reported that the sides have held three settlement meetings without securing a deal. The talks began in earnest yesterday, said the sources who spoke with CNET.

Gorton was in a precarious legal position.The jury tasked with assessing damages was often reminded by Glenn Pomerantz, the RIAA's lead attorney, that Gorton had already been found liable of willful copyright infringement by U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood. … Read more

The World Wide Web Consortium is to develop standards to enable direct peer-to-peer communications between browsers, without the need to go through centralized servers.

The standards could make it more difficult for repressive government action against Web communications, according to members of the W3C working group assigned to develop the standards. The group aims to define APIs that will let browsers communicate using audio, video, and "supplementary" real-time communications, the W3C said yesterday.

"W3C today launched a new Web Real-Time Communications Working Group to define client-side APIs to enable real-time communications in Web browsers," the W3C … Read more