So the US courts have given P2P a victory over the RIAA. They upheld the notion that they cannot be liable for the behaviour of their users, for any illegal file transfers that their users make.

This is a great victory for P2P, for the freedom to invent and innovate. Why is this so? It prevents inventors from being attacked by people with vested interests in seeing their inventions fail, in this case protecting their market share. It is a natural reaction to want to protect something that you have built up already, to protect it from something new that threatens it.

But this is the way a truly free market must work. Pressures from better ways of doing stuff (I have to generalize here) must be allowed, it's like natural selection in a way. The market must be allowed to choose the winner. The Old Ways must not be allowed a stranglehold on new innovations, just because it threatens them. Allowing them this would only be detrimenental to the market and the public in general.

The CEO of the RIAA had this to say about the victory of P2P in the court of law:

"This decision does nothing to absolve these businesses from their responsibility as corporate citizens to address the rampant illegal use of their networks," Bainwol said in a statement. The issue is "whether or not digital music will be enjoyed in a fashion that supports the creative process or one that robs it of its future. That's the online future of music."

I have nothing but disdain for his statement. It is his job to say that but it really is a stupid stance to take. Vested interests and all I suppose. I especially, violently disagree with "The issue is "whether or not digital music will be enjoyed in a fashion that supports the creative process or one that robs it of its future. That's the online future of music."".

The benefits that the internet and the P2P services it supports give to the creative process far outweigh the support the RIAA gives to it's artists. The internet brings new audiences to artists that otherwise would not know about them. It promotes their work and with this promotion, gives people a reason to support them by buying their works. The internet and P2P allow bands to thrive on their own, free from the shennanigans of the RIAA.

The only future that I can see P2P robbing is that of the RIAA. I can forsee the internet and P2P making such organizations obsolete. Maybe if they changed their stance and evolved along with the rest of the world, they would survive, but with this track record of resisting change, my money isn't on the RIAA.