A Good Day for File-Sharing

[SlyckTom]

Just a few months ago, the situation appeared grim for the file-sharing community, at least from a mainstream point of view. During the latter months of 2005, the MPAA began shutting down eDonkey2000 and BitTorrent indexing sites in earnest. The RIAA was suing music traders left and right, and the Supreme Court decision loomed like Hurricane Katrina.

And finally the Supreme Court decision hit. On June 27, 2005, in a rare 9-0 decision the Supreme Court remanded the case back to the lower courts. Specifically, the Supreme Court ruled, "We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties."

As is typical by the mainstream media, the Supreme Court decision was heralded as an RIAA/MPAA victory. But the coming months would prove a much different situation.

Outside the P2P and file-sharing world yields two very different realities; the reality anti-P2P entities such as the RIAA/MPAA wish to portray, and the reality the P2P/file-sharing world wish to portray. Very rarely, if ever, do these two realities ever agree.

The significantly better publicized message anti-P2P entities portray is readily swooped up by the mainstream media. Well-written press releases often provide a significant chuck to an article for journalists unfamiliar with the file-sharing world. Headlines such as “P2P Use in decline”, “iTunes More Popular than Most P2P networks” and “File-Sharing Companies Defeated by RIAA/MPAA” have become all too common.

Yet such headlines are plastered on high traffic media sites despite being readily debunked. In particular, the NPD Group released a study which concluded, “iTunes was more popular than most P2P sites.” Although the study was ripped to shreds, it still managed to be taken as gospel by a majority of technology and mainstream sites.

However, it appears the tide of the propaganda war may be changing.

In a change of pace from the typical headline news which portrays P2P in decline, CacheLogic’s study has a very pro file-sharing angle. According to CacheLogic’s study, the recent enforcement actions against file-sharing have done nothing to stem the rise of P2P networking. Instead, it has only encouraged file-traders to migrate to alternative networks. In addition, CacheLogic discovered that P2P continues to represent the most heavily used Internet medium, as it consumes in excess of 60% of an ISP’s bandwidth.

Whether or not you take CacheLogic’s latest study with a grain of salt, there’s little denying the power it is having over the media. In addition, several more headlines in Slyck's "More News From Around the Web" also portrays a changing attitude. Perhaps with some time, the mainstream will finally realize P2P's true condition.

[irish]

Great article SlyckTom. It's about time that the filesharing community gets a good write up from the media world. All too often we are degraded as 'simple thieving pirates' and that the poor entertainment industry is losing out to our 'criminal activities'.

[voodoohippie]

I think rather the RIAA/MPAA likes it or not they’ve finally realized that no matter how much DRM/CSS/copy protection they can put on a product it is a challenge for any good hacker to strip it. So finally instead of the battle of the bulge they have decided to come up with a levy for all residential ISP’s that goes into a fund to support the artists and they will keep track of the Downloads and fire all these anti-p2p companies such as Overpeer, Big Champaign and others to do their dirty work and try and spam the p2p networks with fakes and viruses (which eventually infect government systems). After all rather you like it or not a $5/Mo levy for ISP’s is a very valuable solution to the problem. You can go right ahead and Download to your hearts content or until your hard drive is full and you run out to your local store and buy another 120 GB drive only to do the same. When the artists are getting paid for the material that is on p2p networks and the content is user friendly everyone wins. And also think about all those plastic round discs laying around your house or worse thrown away because there is little room in a college dorm or storage house for people on the move. I’d like to think more web sites like eff.org will really push for this levy to be our savior as it is the only workable solution.

Voodoohippie
(Defender of FREE cyberspace)

[altpdend]

I think rather the RIAA/MPAA likes it or not they’ve finally realized that no matter how much DRM/CSS/copy protection they can put on a product it is a challenge for any good hacker to strip it. So finally instead of the battle of the bulge they have decided to come up with a levy for all residential ISP’s that goes into a fund to support the artists and they will keep track of the Downloads and fire all these anti-p2p companies such as Overpeer, Big Champaign and others to do their dirty work and try and spam the p2p networks with fakes and viruses (which eventually infect government systems). After all rather you like it or not a $5/Mo levy for ISP’s is a very valuable solution to the problem. You can go right ahead and Download to your hearts content or until your hard drive is full and you run out to your local store and buy another 120 GB drive only to do the same. When the artists are getting paid for the material that is on p2p networks and the content is user friendly everyone wins. And also think about all those plastic round discs laying around your house or worse thrown away because there is little room in a college dorm or storage house for people on the move. I’d like to think more web sites like eff.org will really push for this levy to be our savior as it is the only workable solution.

Voodoohippie
(Defender of FREE cyberspace)

I don't know about you but i don't wan't my isp montoring everything i do just so the riaaa/mpaa can get rich.

[AussieMatt]

I agree Voluntary Collective Licening is the way to go.

It will be interesting to see if Playlouder is sucessfull ...........

[ksaturn123]

Filesharing isn't going to die, so thier next bet would be to adapt and try to profit on it. Isn't that how Corporate America works . Though I wouldn't use most of the newer services popping up (mainly over the restricted use of boughten products), at least thier trying, and that's deffinately a step in the right direction.

[vtwin0001]

Yeah... put it inside my ISP toll and stop disturbing me!!!

I wont pay but 8 dlls per month (and thats a lot)

[ilbozo]

Nice one Tom

I read that article you mention, concise but to the point, the graph was startling for me to see but did back up the numbers of people on ED2k network. Where the hell was BT though? It had very little look in for the amount of users it has both illegal and legal!?

[philthefug]

I say let movie and record have the headlines to tell the whole world they won the war. Just saying it doesn't make it so.

[SlyckChuck]

It is simple propaganda wars. They say they are winning until they get caught tripping up someones rights. Surely they will try to sweep that under the rug like suing a deceased person. Stay tuned the industry will yet again slip only this time let the glare of media see the truth instead of spin.

[vtwin0001]

The media is a bunch of dumb ppl that do only what they are dictated to do....

ppl listen to them in order to be informmed, however, they get disinformed and then they based their opinions based on that disinformation.

Certainly they are succeding (the ppl who dictate them what to say and do to the media) into dumbing down america.

[wooder]

Sure, it's upsetting that our side of the story doesn't get reported, but who really cares whether the public believes P2P is popular or not?

[artios]

Filesharing isn't going to die, so thier next bet would be to adapt and try to profit on it. Isn't that how Corporate America works . Though I wouldn't use most of the newer services popping up (mainly over the restricted use of boughten products), at least thier trying, and that's deffinately a step in the right direction.

I don’t think that the next move for **AA will be to try to profit through file-sharing.

They have spent a ridiculous amount of money in courts and trials. If **AA wanted to adapt, they should have done it years now, and save all these huge lawyers fees (see Napster & Grokster). The war continues...

[Andu]

Filesharing isn't going to die, so thier next bet would be to adapt and try to profit on it. Isn't that how Corporate America works . Though I wouldn't use most of the newer services popping up (mainly over the restricted use of boughten products), at least thier trying, and that's deffinately a step in the right direction.

I don’t think that the next move for **AA will be to try to profit through file-sharing.

They have spent a ridiculous amount of money in courts and trials. If **AA wanted to adapt, they should have done it years now, and save all these huge lawyers fees (see Napster & Grokster). The war continues...

Actually what they are trying is sensible (from their point of view). They are trying to push competition from the market both with propaganda and fear. Creating basically a cartel like they have offline. This way they can control prices and maximise their profits. Of course it would be the consumers that will have to pay the price. Besides they would have a much stronger voice in the online world and can push the gouvernments to cripple consumer rights in the process.

Sony on the other hand might be doing what is best for their own buisness. Bringing back market mechanisms into the music market which always is good for the consumer until someone achieves a dominating position in the market.
Besides the market model seems to be reasonable as far as I can judge. No DRM, sharing all the files you wish of their catalog at whatever quality you wish at a reasonable price. And of course turning the entire p2p sharing buisness legit.

It certainly has alot of appeal to me. If now the other labels could agree on this we might see better times ahead of us.

[AussieMatt]

Love Him or Hate him Andrew Lack the current CEO of Sony is thinking forward and comes from NBC so he totally understands the concept paying for content that isnt protected via subscription and advertising.

Remeber Cable and Satelite TV are also Walled garden networks .If you subscribe to get TV, have a cellphone you are already using a walled garden protected network.