End Of An Era

I am currently working on a paper with a thesis that is similar to this:

As distributed peer-to-peer filesharing services grow in popularity, content providers will be forced into a new paradigm for intellectual property. It will become impossible to enforce copyright laws as they currently stand. I plan to use wiki as a possible alternative to current standards of intellectual property.

Tell me what you think- am I on to something, am I crazy, should I look at it from another angle? I am interesting in knowing what people think about my idea. As my paper progresses, I will post some or all of it here.

-- AndyColligan

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Well, you did solicit opinions ... I don't believe that p2p will have any lasting legal effect. The reason is simple: Sure, copyright-violators have the edge over copyright-holders, for technical reasons which are unlikely to change. However, copyright-holders have the legal and moral edge; eventually the penalty for running a p2p client will become severe enough (assuming their usage doesn't taper off for some other reason) that nobody will risk doing it. Have patience, there are moral ways to obtain the info-rich society you crave. -- DanielKnapp

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I disagree with Daniel, although not that p2p will have little effect. The mere fact of perfect digital copying means the end of IP as we known it. P2P is just a more anonymous form of distribution. -- PeteHardie

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It's now [20040617] nearly 4 years since this page was edited last - any news?

Yeah, now you are a terrorist if you use p2p. Because you might be downloading from someone who knows a terrorist, then you are linked to that group. If you have links to terrorist groups, then you are a terrorist. Also, trading mp3's will harm our economy, which is also terrorism. So, if you love freedom, liberty, and the right to communicate freely - instead of trading music, go out and buy every crappy album you can and throw it away(don't donate it, that's hurting the economy, which again, make you a terrorist)

Let's not forget that reading sensitive documents that have been published on WikiLeaks makes you a terrorist, too.

 Everything -- makes you a terrorist
 Everything -- makes you a terrorist

(with apologies to Joe Jackson)