DISQUS

Technology Liberation Front: Ending The War on File Sharing Doesn’t Mean the End of Copyright

  • Self Appointed Genius · 1 year ago
    While forcible attempts to kill file sharing as doomed to failure, that doesn't mean the phenomenon won't die off of its own defects. These P2P networks are littered with viruses, spyware, etc. That risk drives a lot of people, technical and nontechnical users alike, away from P2P.

    This could be especially effective because the nature of the virus is changing. It used to be that to get a virus you'd have to download an executable, run it, and it would wipe your harddrive. That's not true anymore. Modern malware is about making money. So we'll see more ID theft, more spying on your email and bank account, and while worms that jump from machine to machine on their own seem to be a thing of the past, that doesn't mean a bug in P2P software (which tends to be pretty sketchy) couldn't be used in such a way.

    Is that enough to scare people off of P2P?

    Well, depending on how bad the situation gets, yes.
  • Timon · 1 year ago
    I think the emphasis on networked p2p is misplaced, a tremendous amount of file sharing involves someone plugging in a usb cable. It will be wonderfully ironic when the next-gen storage medium, the Blu-ray disc, instead of being used to store one 50g HDTV-ready file, is used to store 75 iPhone-ready ones. The collections boggle the mind -- all Oscar winners since 1931 on one disk, all rat pack, brat pack, and Soderbergh-pack movies in the sleeve of your text book. At that point people arguing for progress and freedom will insist on the need for blu-ray sniffing dogs in high schools, natch.
  • MikeT · 1 year ago
    The threat of viruses is a good motivator to not use P2P, and the copyright cartels could take advantage of that by quietly unleashing some pretty horrible ones like ones that corrupt the BIOS.