Go read this about Weblogs and Mass Amateurisation of the web and everything else. As tools to make us more creative become cheap or free and readily available will we start using the other sid eof our brains more and will the online race and then the offline world become more expressive and free thinking ? Kinda ironic that when free speech is being smothered offline by some oprresive western regimes we are in fact becoming more expressive online.
They’re clamping down on the fiel sharers and the riaa is polluting networks like kazaa but the technology is already changing to stop them doing this with checksums and ratings on the validity of songs being downloaded. They’re suing individuals for downloading songs now and the latest is they are offering an amnesty for downloaders.
The trouble is that their remedy is crap. They have to prevent and not cure. People have gotten into the habit of downloading and sharing. So if you sour the milk in the bottle people are just going to build another way of distribution and the masses will move there. The RIAA will forever be playing catch up.