Earthlink's Research and Development group has announced they're experimenting with a new SIP based proof-of-concept content sharing application dubbed SIPShare. Their goal is to show that SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) can be functionally used for peer to peer applications, far removed from its traditional use in voice and video.
According to Earthlink, the program is written in Java, so it can be run on many platforms without modification. Users can share normal p2p content via standard SIP messaging, with transfers completed using a simple UDP-based file transfer protocol. (see screenshots)
It's an interesting choice at a time when Senator Orrin Hatch is gunning to get p2p developers prosecuted for "inducing" piracy. Since Earthlink is not as difficult to find as Kazaa maker Sharman Networks, (who are tucked away on an island in the Pacific) it's a risky proposition for a major ISP to support p2p development. The Earthlink R&D department is heading out on an unsturdy limb to take a digital ethics stance:
"Earthlink believes an open Internet is a good Internet. An open Internet means users have full end-to-end connectivity to say to each other whatever it is they say, be that voice, video, or other data exchanges, without the help of mediating servers in the middle whenever possible. We believe that if peer-to-peer flourishes, the Internet flourishes."
To dodge potential legal bullets, the company notes SIPShare is NOT a supported EarthLink product. "It is more than anything else a manifestation of an idea," says the company. "So if you call our Tech Support with SIPshare questions, they will have no idea what you are talking about. So please, if you use SIPshare, you're on your own."
Earthlink admits they aren't the first to explore voice over p2p (pointing to project JXTA), nor are they the first to explore alternative p2p protocols. Their primary goal is to inform the public that SIP is more than a powerful voice over IP enabler, but also a protocol that enables peer-to-peer in a standards-based way.
Users curious about the application can download it
here, but should note it does not function from behind NAT gear, though that functionality could easily be added.