Shaping means reducing the bandwidth for particular purposes. Bandwidth is your kbps speed. Shaping can come in different forms. eg: ISP's can detect gnutella programs & shape programs that use that network.

Here's an example of how a p2p bandwidth shaper can work against Gnutella: Bandwidth Shaper Sample - typical of how some ISP's use it (click on link) ie: giving priority to net surfing & low priorities to p2p sharing. As you see from this example, the school has divided internet use into categories & prioritizes certain ones above others re: bandwidth speed.