State Politicians Don't Understand P2P Either

from the *sigh* dept

What is it with the difficulty politicians seem to have understanding what a P2P file sharing network is, and why none of the networks have control over the content being shared? The latest is that a group of 40 states have teamed up to write a threatening letter to file sharing companies accusing them of all sorts of bad things. In whose name are they doing this? Even though the courts have recognized file sharing networks for what they are, it appears that the state attorneys general seem to believe that they can ignore what the law says when the entertainment industry starts telling them how evil file sharing networks are. Update: Ernest Miller asks, "why shouldn't the state attorneys general condemn email and FTP as well? An awful lot of child porn is shared via email. Shouldn't email providers be doing more to stop it?"
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Matthew, 5 Aug 2004 @ 8:28am

    There's nothing wrong with p2p

    They shouldn't condemn file sharing networks, they should condemn the illegal stuff ON the file sharing networks.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Dan Neuman, 5 Aug 2004 @ 9:50am

    More illegal companies

    While they're going after P2P, maybe the state politicians should go after gun manufacturers, knife manufacturers, axe manufacturers, and heck, even car and alcohol manufacturers for all horrible things their products do. Sharing files is nothing compared to actually murdering people. Or maybe content owners disagree?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    DV Henkel-Wallace, 5 Aug 2004 @ 10:14am

    Is there really so much?

    An awful lot of child porn is shared via email.

    Is there even much of it? Perhaps (though I imagine it would be hard to meter), "an awful large proportion of child porn is shared via email," but seriously, how much child porn is there, as opposed to, say, discussions of plans for future terrorist attacks or mob discussions of whacking someone?

    I know that flashing the "child porn" argument gets attention (and what parent isn't horrified by the thought?) but seriously, even our local man-bites-dog paper has very few cases of this kind of child abuse -- even when it takes its articles from all over the USA!

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.