The P2P Manifesto
This is an interesting piece on the inevitability of P2P to survive. I’ve discussed this before.
http://montemagno.typepad.com/p2p_manifesto/2005/01/p2p_manifesto.html
Elaborating on the comment I wrote on that page —
“Content” cannot be protected from copying because it’s not a “thing”. Content is a pattern. If you can view it in any meaningful way, you can copy it. As many times as you want to. There is no difference between “usage” and “copying”. Anyone who can “use” content can “copy” it, if they so desire. It may be difficult, but it can’t be made impossible. Because of this relationship, any attempt to restrict copying will only serve to restrict usage instead, if even that.
(Update: A more concise English translation is here.)