IS THERE a way to stop the selfishness that plagues some of the most active communities on the net? Cooperation might improve if the millions of people who share music, software and other resources in cyberspace mimicked some of the social norms of everyday life.
Peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa allow individuals to share files over the internet without relying on centralised servers. Anyone who joins becomes a “node”, linked to a handful of others, and is supposed to make available some files from their computer. When someone wants the latest music single they request it from their neighbours, who…
