Lecturer Jorge Cotrell lost his job at Polytechnic University of Valencia UPV in Spain due to pressure by the Spanish Recording Industry Association "Promusicae" and the MPAA. And it was due to a talk on legal uses of P2P.

I know a music exec who similarly lost his job in the U.S., though that was unpublicized. Academics have less to lose by going public like Cotrell did. His friend Cory Doctorow covered it and now it's everywhere.

This is a reprehensible act by the parties involved, from Promusicaee and MPAA to the spinless university Dean. But it is not surprising. It is only more evidence of the arrogant, power hungry, out of touch, and dishonest ways of the music and movie industries. It reminds me why I came up with the name and created the web site DiaRIAA to track such buffoonery.

In the final analysis, when you're already attacking your best fans bagging a lowly academic is a cheap stunt at best and smacks of pathetic desperation.

Marc Freedman
RazorPop, developer of TrustyFiles, the leading multiple network P2P file sharing software
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