It doesn't take much these days to elevate a technology to hot-button status, complete with its own lingo and a catchy buzzword. After a few swiped songs, nifty names such as Napster and MP3 pop up.

Peer-to-peer networking has caused a dramatic increase in Internet traffic. Today, the major P2P user is the consumer, and the major application is media file sharing. Music, movies and the like now ...