About two years ago, I discovered the joys of P2P. After experimenting with kazaa , neo napster , bearshare, I finally settled on e-mule – a great p2p client with a wonderful community thrown in.

In the last two years one of my favourite e-mule sites has been taken off. Share Reactor went down due to legal action. It’s back in a truncated form – as Respectp2p – but its not the same. A whole host of other sites have also gone down too. Presumably for the same reason. Copyright and trademark violation. There are still a few around that offer everything to out of print comics to rare music, foreign films to documentaries, silent films to the latest chart toppers. Incidentally, most of them do not offer microsoft products – as they fear legal action at a different level. Quite like a sledgehammer used to crack a walnut.

There was a time when those who pirated software or movies or music were the sleezy types. Disctinctly non-tech. who would sell us badly pirated VHS or audio tapes. Today, given the nature of technology, every copy is the same as the original. And your pirate has moved from the sleazy back allies to the comfort of the home, where via their broadband connection, the goody lands comfortably on the hard disk.

The easiest thing to do is download music. It downloads in seconds if not minutes. If you like the kind of music that I do then it takes a bit longer – because not too many people listen to that kind of music.But, sooner or later it downloads. And that is the essence of p2p. It pulls stuff of other peoples hard disks and ensures that you get it finally. Anyone who is downloading is also sharing. So at any point in time you could have hundreds of bits and bytes of music being shared between multiple home pc’s sitting in various countries and various time zones. Movies, comics, books and software take a bit longer. No wonder the owners of the copyright are worried.

Obviously, something like this impacts the profitability of the copyright owner. So its’ not surprising that they are getting together and suing. The Economist today has an interesting lead on how music industry giants are coming together to sue the technology vendors.

In the article, called Illegal File Sharers under Attack, the Economist wryly observes that:

THE music business should have stuck by Thomas Edison’s technology if it wanted to avoid the threat of piracy. His wax cylinders could record a performance but could not be reproduced; that became possible only with the invention of the flat-disc record some years later. On Tuesday March 29th, America’s Supreme Court will begin to hear testimony in a case brought by the big entertainment companies that is intended to stop the illegal downloading of copyright-protected music and film

Part of the problem is the exhorbitant cost of music/movies. There was a time when a brand new film released on VHS would be available for around $10 or £10. Today, a DVD of a film like Lord of the Rings costs $27 on sale. This at a time when the cost of the DVD as well as the cost of duplicating has both gone down. I would think that in real terms an Indiana Jones film cost about the same as a Lord of the Rings. The consumer therefore is getting screwed. And he or she is getting it elsewhere free of charge at the same quality. Therefore, it is about time that the entertainment industry evoleved a more practical approach to pricing – because i really can’t see them locking down a billion odd PC’s across the world.

And in that sense the Indian entertainment industry has found the best way to combat piracy. It has slashed prices of music CD’s, VCD’s and DVD’s. I can buy a branded VCD for under Rs.100 (less than $2). A branded DVD costs around Rs.200 (under $4). An audio CD costs around Rs. 75. In fact this is less than what I used to pay for branded audio casettes and VHS ‘s a few years ago. There is little incentive to bootleg.

Also, while piracy can be termed ” illegal”, i really can’t see the reason why the industry wants to go after the technology. P2P is what the net was created for. To try and shut down the technology is an exercise in futility. The more they try, the more it will spread.