One purpose of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is to protect the technology of file sharing, and companies that use it, by inventing a theoretical "safe harbor" that shelters all sorts of user-powered platforms from the consequences of illegal actions by the users.
Called "The Watermark Drive, " because its contents are stamped with watermarks to protect them from piracy, the file is spoken of at NPR as if it were a sacred vessel.
Under first-to-file, an inventor who does not take prompt action to protect his or her invention faces a higher risk that a later inventor will end up holding the associated U.S. patent rights.