Torrent technology - evil?

Or is it more than that? The PirateBay trial has ended - for now. Judge found the 4 accused guilty, and sentenced them to 1 year in prison and 30 million in fines.

On one side, you can claim that these people knew exactly what PirateBay would be used for - hell, even the name suggests the use.

On the other hand, you can make a comparison that one of my friends made: sue the road makers! They provide a road, on which people break laws by driving fast and recklessly. Or how about car makers? They provide the means to do it.

Actually, going by the ruling in this PB case, one could almost sue every ISP, Computer Brand, MP3 player brands etc etc etc, for providing the means to break copyright laws, and it would make just as much sense.

The issue here, isn't just PB isolated. It's every torrent-page out there. Yes, of course we know that probably most of them will contain torrents of copyrighted material. But there's also tens of thousands of torrents to legal material. Heck, several companies, including Blizzard, use torrent technology to distribute their own content.

Is it technically wrong to spread copyrighted material for free? Yes. Technically. But how come, when asked how much the net and piracy has meant for their music and revenues, most artists concede "a lot"? Established brand names (which you indeed may call Britney Spears, Kanye West etc) don't need the net, since they already have billions invested in marketing campaigns.

But for the "little" ones. The J.U.S.T.I.C.E's, the Kaizers Orchestra's, Kutuman's, Datarock's, Detektivbyrån's, the Basshunter's, et cetera ad nauseum. Sure, some people think their music is crap, but thanks to piracy and net distribution, these artists have made names for themselves. Some of them got picked up so quickly by the mainstream (through analyzing web trends), radio stations etc will still claim it was "their discoveries". Others simply would never have been known outside their countries if it wasn't for net distribution.

It's a way to discover new music, new tastes. If it wasn't for the net, I wouldn't have bought - well - about 75% of my CD collection. I would never have known about El-P, Dieselboy, Dry Kill Logic, Atmosphere, P.O.S., Aesop Rock, Herbaliser, DJ Shadow etc. By sharing with others, one discovers new influences.

Also, most studies conducted in the past 4 years, show that people who download music and movies - IN GENERAL - buy more music and movies than those who don't. Want links? Go google it.

In conclusion, the industry is desperately clinging to their old standards where the artists get fuck all, and the big shot companies take it all. Just imagine it, so many of those greedy bastards would be out of a job if more artists discovered they could distribute their own productions online, without their expensive help.

Just look at Spotify - it's brilliant. I pay 99 NOK a month, and I can listen to tons of music in excellent quality. Some record companies are of course resisting this, and in doing so they limit the content available to Spotify users. The more companies and artists embrace this, the sooner they can start making money in a new market. Not as much money as before for the companies - more money for the artists.