How much legal is it to use your create your own P2P Application. Make it connect to the Gnutella Network. And, then feature ads, and make money out of it?

I'm not a lawyer but I would say it is totally legal.
No one said that P2P software is meant to share copyrighted materials. Its like a knife: You can kill someone with it or cut your vegetables with it.

If you publish it under the GPL you dont take any responsibility for damage caused by your program.

I am curious about Gnutella Networks. They will spend hundred thousands of dollars on maintaining their servers, while their clients connect to their networks free of cost, and make money. I mean, how can one be a Gnutella client. It can't be free, for sure. They (Gnutella) will want something in exchange.

I see you are a victim of capitalism.
Gnutella is free, no one owns it. We own it!
Gnutella is opensource, if you have read the specifications
you can start coding your own client.

No one owns it.
If you want to know more about Gnutella P2P
check out my article:
http://www.planet-source-code.com/vb...=7565&lngWId=4

If you write GPL software you are most likely broke, don't own anything and therefore don't have to worry about law suits for damage anyway.
GPL doesn't protect you from law suits. If you make $$ from your program you are a bigger target because you have something to go after.There are no central servers! Everyone on the network gives a little bandwidth, and gets a little bandwith, so it evens out mostly.
It's file "sharing" at its best.
There are a few greedy people who try to profit off of the "free" bandwidth, they write P2P programs and display ads on people's screens while they "share" files. Bad karma will catch up with them.

Or maybe they're trying to profit off writing the P2P programs.. not such a bad idea really.

The idea of Gnutella is mainly to be free and independent.
Most developers dont program for cash:
They are doing it because they like Gnutella.
(OK, lets forget about few client devs)

Thanks for your advice.

What if I can program a P2P Application. I can just make it connect to Gnutella, add some ads, and $$$ will come my way! Is it really that easy?

Or, how can I be a Gnutella Client?

Hehe.

a) If you think U can write a client that easy... and b) also thousands of users think your ad-supported client is better than the free available competitors, then yes you can make some $$$ (or a lot when adding spyware?). Ask Bearshare and Limewire if they make good bucks? I wonder if they get rich?

I was just giving an example

Again I am giving an example:

Suppose, I can write a client. Then what do I need to do, in order to get listed officially as a Gnutella client?

easy, find a cool name + announce it here + get beta testers
it's told to join the GDF is a good idea, well your decision.
communication with other developers is helpfull.

You make it sound so easy Anyway, I was asking how I can be listed on Gnutella.com or Gnutelliums.com, as an official client? Didn't find a single e-mail address there!

Don't you need a license or anything?

Who pays, and maintains the Gnutella servers? And how do they recover the amount spent?

Cookies are handy in advertising. However, they do not extract any personal identifiable information, but only info. (Like, which ads have been shown, for how long etc.) to enhance the user experience.

My Question is: Are Cookies considered as Spyware?

I am not writing anything. Might write in the future. Give me your the concerned email address concerned, anyway, for reference

Write the program first, then come back and let some people know it works, see what people think before you make a big deal out of it. There are many, many programs and some are now un supported because people found out they can't make a zillion writing a client and gave up.
If you are here to make a buck, go write a PDA ap or something, gnutella is not the place for greed.

Or make a kickass gnutella app that blows the others out of the water. I don't think anyone here would mind seeing that

OK OK! Cool down! I am not writing anything! I was just giving an example

Do you think it's easy to write an application? Do you think you might use the application for free, while the developer (who has toiled for hours) get's nothing? What if small mini-sized ads are featured, only such that the developer could afford hosting, and development of the application. Would you be happy with the person who deserves all the credit, gets something at-least? how would you answer this question

Programmers should get something for their work, of course.
Maybe it's fun, money, fame, experience what they get...

...the author could choose IMHO. Open source is fine for many reasons, but I also accept ads or paying a small amount for an ad-free version. If a program is worth to be used, it's worth to give something back to the programmer!

If the application is good, and you think that the programmer has worked hard for it, would you mind seeing an ad. This will help keep the application alive.

hmm...what do ya ppl think?

Hi

I am the developper of goochi.
I would like to give you my own experience. I am writing a P2P client/server and a chat for a year now..exactly 1 year/3=4month because I can program only the nights. The day, I am working for food )

What for ? In my case, just for fun and to learn...no commercial targets...

one word : have fun in the life ))))