Wow Malk, thanks for the link - a great, inspiring essay!
I ended up not only reading the essay itself but also many branches of the discussion it had stirred. The entire Kuro5hin site is very classy and has obviously attracted a lot of intelligence around it.
The p2p-related chapters quoted by Hellbound made particularly interesting reading. The idea of two reality paradigms clashing together comes inevitably to mind when looking at the current confrontation between the various filesharing communities and the entertainment industry. It is like we lived in two parallel realities that hardly touch each other. In the corporate reality digital music is something scarce that one can pack into plastic and sell through promotion at 20 USD / album. In the community reality it is something abundant that one can download and enjoy with modest bandwidth and storage costs, perhaps at 1 USD / album. Within a year Napster has managed to snap away 95 % of the valid exchange value of a CD - for those initiated in filesharing. And soon everybody with an internet connection will be initiated in it. For an industry built around CD and DVD sales that is a reality shock indeed. Suddenly they are gasping in a very thin air. Much like dinosaurs after the Big Meteorite Hit they are faced with a scary new reality - one where they fit badly in and where they are neither wanted nor - as it seems - needed.
- tg
