(republished from Nov 2)

Peace through Partnerships: The Sony BMG leak is one of several efforts in the P2P world to make peace with the recording labels. Don't be fooled about who is accommodating who. I wish them all the best of luck.

There are a lot of tech players eager to be legal and put skin in the game, as well as larger P2P developers tiring of the fight and giving in to RIAA. But investment does not a business make. What's the model? P2P is inherently a promotional medium. These new efforts require user files and searches to be scrubbed of potential copyright violations. Assuming that can be satisfactorily resolved for RIAA (no file zipping to evade the censors, please!), what is the consumer incentive? For P2P consumers already undeterred by lawsuits? Or for consumers already using and tiring of web paid download services that are much more convenient and faster than P2P?

Compared to web downloads, there is a significant cost to P2P users in using their own PCs and bandwidth. Will the music industry allow paid P2P downloads to recognize this and charge sufficiently lower, say 25� a pop? Of course not.

There IS a market for paid legal downloads. But in today's digital marketplace, the one RIAA created, that market segment is small. It makes sense for an add-in network with modest technology like Altnet. Not for the private network or closed environment with huge technology overhead like the RIAA-sanctioned version.

Lastly, when these efforts finally do hit the market, P2P technology will have evolved past them.

A FAILURE IN THE MAKING: RIAA-SANCTIONED P2P UNDER DEVELOPMENT
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,65414,00.html
... SONY BMG, MASHBOXX, SNOCAP, AND GROKSTER
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/103004dnbusmusicdownload.62026.html

P2P CONTINUES UP, PAID DOWNLOADS DOWN
http://www.npd.com/dynamic/releases/press_041013.html