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I love how so many of the content providers in life violate the Bill of Rights by assuming a priori that their customers--i.e. the reason they have profits--are criminals.
This "oh! Won't someone think of the Authors?!" crud is the same as movie stars, pop music stars, &tc lamenting the loss of creativity and profit due to file sharing.
Indeed, there is a large temptation to "Share" things that should not be shared without it benefitting the creator, but honest people will not do this. Not to harp on a paradigm, but see how iTunes exploded, especially after the Napster imbroglio. People are willing to pay for content. They also like sharing new things, and that is what the content providers must understand.
Hey Penguin Books! I borrowed a copy of _On The Road_ in college, and many of the books you sold me I gave to friends!
Now why oh why is that considered fair use, but if I even so much as contemplate e.mailing a friend a neat mp3 or text file, I am a criminal?
As Lawrence Lessig wrote in _The Future of Ideas_ the contention rests in the notion of perfect control. There was never perfect control in copyright or intellectual property, and I hope that never is.
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