P2Pnet does a nice job pointing out the inaccuracies of P2P reporting in the popular press. Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist and lawyer John Farmer published a Q&A on downloading music that looks like it was written by the music industry.

Here are a few examples.

"Q: I want to watch my teenager. What sites are commonly used for illegal music downloading?

A: Again, the P2P software offered by various sites has hypothetically legal uses, but such software frequently is used for illegal music copying. Popular sites for obtaining P2P software include KaZaA, LimeWire, bearshare, Morpheus, Gnutella, eDonkey and BitTorrent.

P2Pnet: There's nothing "hypothetical" about it.

Q: I know lots of folks who download music with such P2P software, and nothing has happened to them. Can't I get away with this?

A: Take your chances if you wish. The music industry has sued thousands of folks for illegally downloading music.

P2Pnet: The RIAA hasn't actually sued anyone, yet. It's fired subpoenas at more than 17,000 men, women and children, but so far, not one of them has appeared in a court or before a judge or has been found guilty of anything. Patti Santangelo, who's defending herself against the Big Four, will be the first to plead her case.
As to taking chances, in the US alone, more than 60 million Americans have shared files on the p2p networks, says a Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School paper. Of these, the Big Four, Vivendi Universal, Warner Music, EMI and Sony BMG, have only been able to single out a tiny 17,000, or so, since 2003. Or put another way, the chances of any given individual being victimized are akin to him or her being struck by lightning."