Web rings were one way someone would find their way around the Web before search engines really were any good. Basically, a group of sites of a certain interest would static link each other on each site.
Say you were on a web forum for skateboarders. That forum would have a web ring section, usually in the footer or one of the gutters, of links to other sites related to skateboarding. Each of those sites would reciprocally list the others as well.
If you published your own Website about skateboarding, you would email the webmasters of those sites and asked to be added; although some had centralized Webmasters to manage the ring.
Managing a legally procured library of media. Piracy is not the only way to get digital music, movies, and books.