Persuading users not to free-ride

The argument is presented that the problem of free-riding on p2p nets is a social problem related to users' lack of understanding of the infrastructure. Modeling of social relationships and cooperation levels is put forward as a solution. They have identified socially undesirable behaviors.

They use 4 strategies to promote community:
1) encouraging altruism
2) reward with visibility/reputation
3) allow relationship development between users
4) tangible reward such as better download rates.

Equations have been created to specify the social variables such as altruism or reciprocity which they want the system to track and reward.

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