Bittorent and Grokster are still rocking the copyright boat. In all fairness, these guys are not trying to free the bonds of knowledge for the masses.
A vigorous debate on copyright should include some discussion of the ever-extending copyright terms, excluding many great works from the public domain. This is often where the p2p advocates go with the argument. But really, at the front line of the legal battle are music producers that force feed mass market radio stations with 50 Cent, and on the other side the Grokster users downloading primarily Porn and Britney songs. Frankly, I wouldn't mind either one of these players losing. Unfortunately they may be the ones deciding whether the knowledge and art of a hundreds of years are kept from millions of people who would benefit from them.
Anyway, what got me thinking about this topic was these hillarious exchanges between a Swedish Bittorent site and a few industry players. I especially like the replies to EA (Electronic Arts):
http://static.thepiratebay.org/legal/
Posted by Shannon at April 1, 2005 10:10 AM