Going the Distance

Wired News: Hollywood Files P2P Appeal

And on they go to the Supreme Court. Cert should be denied, with a reference to Sony. At least, we can hope so. In the meantime, P2P will continue, possibly through cryptographically protected networks like Qnext, and Waste. These networks will be harder for Big Media to detect, and harder for them to monitor.

I wonder what the legal ramifications would be if some enterprsing high-schooler started a private library. Say, in order to get a "card", you had to contriute a cd that's on a list. As new cds come in (and members get added), the list gets updated. And everyone checks out cds from the library. Is there any law that differentiates between publicly funded and private libraries?

Point being, could a secure network, requiring a password to enter, which allowed streaming but not downloading be considered legal? If not, how is that conceptually different from the local library, if either place lets me check out the latest Cake cd? Could studios allow free downloads of DRM songs, where the authorization lasted, say, two weeks? I'll have to think about this.