| The record industry would need the equivalent of a worldwide strike force. "You just can't shut down the whole network," says Marshall. "If you disconnect some computers, the others will just reconnect to each other. The network re-forms itself. It won't fall easily." The Gnutella network pits two well-established legal rights against each other: the right to protect copyrighted materials and the right of citizens to be secure in their homes from the threat of unreasonable searches and seizures. It will be interesting to see how the courts resolve that conflict. The clearly established precedent, however, is that a merchant (read: record company) has no right to indiscriminately search homes or personal mail (read: computers and email) for stolen property just because they think someone might have burglarized their store. It's possible, of course, that the courts may eventually rule that commercial rights trump civil rights. But if that happens, the country we now know will have ceased to exist. There is still time, however, even at this late date for the recording industry to at least partially get its digital act together. Public file-sharing services all have one common weakness: authenticating files. Files are not always what they appear to be. Users can go to the trouble of downloading a long music file, for example only to discover it was not correctly labeled (or, in some cases, was maliciously mislabeled). I'm sure many Internet users would welcome the chance to pay reasonable prices for the music they enjoy, particularly if they are assured of getting the files they want. It's not hard to imagine, for example, a more enlightened record company eventually making music files available on the Gnutella network along with certificates of authenticity and a little removable electronic header that invites fans to pay 25 cents or so for each song. Some freeloaders will never pay a dime. But the world has more honest people than thieves. Lots of music fans would gladly pay up but still can't. Unfortunately, there is little chance that will happen until top record-company executives realize that technology has already turned the Internet into a global jukebox. It's a jukebox with considerable untapped potential. Many music lovers would no doubt love more direct contact with their favorite talents, including the opportunity to directly purchase concert tickets in advance or get information about other songs and related products, all of which could put additional money into the hands of artists. It's hard to believe that years after the phenomenally popular online-music revolution began, no one is making any money off music downloads yet. Except, of course, all those lawyers. |