circle.ch :: Post-Grokster world with a closed P2P eDonkey

circle.ch weblog by Urs Gehrig

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2013-05-11T15:38:07

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15. November 2005

Post-Grokster world with a closed P2P eDonkey
Economy (wiki) | Random Thought (wiki) | Copyright (wiki) | P2P (wiki) - urs @ 22:12:37

Sam Yagan, President of MetaMachine, Inc., explains his companies "capitulation" to the RIAA and the conversion of eDonkey to a "closed" P2P system [1,2]. Regarding the creation of software, that can be used for legal and illegal purposes Sam Yagan says:

Because the Grokster standard requires divining a company's "intent," the decision was essentially a call to litigate. This is critical because most startup companies just don't have very much money. Whereas I could have managed to pay for a summary judgment hearing under Betamax, I simply couldn't afford the protracted litigation needed to prove my case in court under Grokster. Without that financial ability, exiting the business was our only option despite my confidence that we never induced infringement and that we would have prevailed under the Grokster standard.

Later in the testimonial he states:

Imagine if for the last ten years we had been able to convert just 1% of the estimated tens of billions of shared files into paid downloads. There is a market solution to be found - it may well be one that fits in to the business model of the incumbent entertainment industry, but it also may not.

If all those P2P software companies die, there will be not less file-shareing but less control by the record industry. As experianced earlier, users will simply turn to other services with similar offerings. What might help is to turn this P2P software to be used for something "good". Therefore some random thoughts:

What about a P2P network that only accepts open content licensed files?
And what about heading towards that 1% conversion, if the price per song - if we take music as an example - is considerably lower than e.g. in the iTunes Music Store?
What if the price is not fixed but depending on supply and demand?
What if some start an Open Music Stock Exchange to produce appropriate revenue?

I appreciate your response!

[1] http://drn.okfn.org/node/78
[2] http://judiciary.senate.gov/testimony.cfm?id=1624&wit_id=4689