P2p is the driver

P2P IS THE DRIVER


Damian Strong is a law student with two passions: basketball and music. As the New York Knicks are hurting in the NBA for yet another season, Damian stops visiting the MadisonSquare Garden and turns the frustration he feels into the music business. Although he was a lead guitar at a high school band, Damian gave up long ago playing in the music group he founded. However,a natural entrepreneur, Damian starts to study the impact Internet has had and will have in the music business.

Damian starts contacting unknown groups trying to lure them to releasing theirproduce in the web site he just opened for music commercialization. After an initial surprising success, the venture loses traction and Damian feels the market is yet too green for such ventures.

Inparallel, Damian notices first and embraces later the notion of peer-to-peer music dissemination. After all, people do not want to listen to unknown groups but to consolidated ones, i.e., thoseproducing the hits constantly played in radio formulas. After some research, he downloads free software from a number of web sites which enables the creation of a decentralized P2P scheme. After some word ofmouth marketing, Damian finds himself in a huge spiral of success which sees constant additions of users and as many hits as any music lover would imagine.

A few months after getting the site inmotion, a complaint on his company is lodged before a local Court by a large multinational. They feel their rights are being infringed and they seek steep damages.



1) Is copyright a good thingand why?

2) Are there alternatives to copyright? Can you assess the degree of development of these initiatives?

3) Are DRMs (Digital Rights Management) good and why?

4) Will Internet shape adifferent notion of copyright and should it be allowed to do it?

5) Are current business models to commercialize music unfit for today’s reality?

6) Is P2P legal? How should commercial use...