Assuming I have two characters, let's call one Tank (the decker) and one Trinity (the one with skillwires).

Assuming Trinity calls Tank and says: "Tank, I need a pilot program for a military M-109 helicopter."

What do I need to make it possible for Tank to download the program from the Matrix and right into Trinity's skillwires?

Not much, assumiing Tank gives Trinity an account on his commlink/PAN. It's just a matter of transfering a file.

If Tank has the program, all he needs is a connection to Trinity's commlink and for said commlink to be networked with her skillwires. This will still take a couple actions to send/load the program.

If Tank needs to find a copy of the program on the Matrix first, he either needs to buy it (Availability tests, gotta love it) or download it from a pirate network (see Unwired).

That's what I assumed, just wanted to make sure...because I fear now that a precedent has been set, my players will look into the possiblities to abuse this. And they're there.

"Wait a minute, this file is labeled Automatics III but its Chopsticks IV!"

What abuse? They still have to buy/steal the 'soft and unless it's cracked, they can only run one copy of it at a time I believe. Either way it's no different than each of them having a copy versus one person having all the copies and transfering it to them. In fact, it's significantly more complicated that way (especially since storage memory isn't an issue anymore).

Yep, the memory's not a problem anymore, but people tend not to have every available skillsoft. But now they can have them in 2 minutes at most.

Right. But the point is they can have all of them if they obtain them somehow. Having a Matrix-style central hub for it is kind of pointless as a result. If they have a Skillsoft that they can copy freely from, they may as well just give you a copy for yourself rather than store them on one character. Hell, when they do upload it to you, that's essentially what they're doing. It's not like you have to delete the file once you're done using it.

So I still don't see any abuse here. The scenario you gave in the first post is simply a convoluted way of handling file copies.

1. Realise that you need car repair skills to maintain your improvised mechanic disguises.
2. Mentally log into Skilz-R-Us Matrix site using internal commlink.
3. Purchase and download Car Repair 8.0 knowsoft.
4. Change oil and demand 87

From start to finish, it probably took about 30 seconds. Skillwires are great. They don't look it at first, but the flexibility is fantastic. Of course Move By Wire is better.

Indeed. MbW is awesome. You can change my oil in 30 seconds too.