You, of course, do not need to reply.
But kindly note that if you reply here, i may not see it and hence wont be able to reply here.

Have a good weekend everyone!

“The quote that you are referring to above was not made by me and did not come from my”…

I think GF meant this:
“this is legal copyright and has not been authorised to be released as an illegal download.”
(http://static.thepiratebay.org/legal/indianagregg_resp.txt)

As you can see I never said it came from you, i just said i think thats what GF meant, I did see it came from your husband.
Just a heads up but you might want to remember one little thing: when either you or your husband say something (or gr8pop or whatever your company) people tend to group it all into one neat little bundle, like when Cary Sherman says something its grouped to the the RIAA, and when Dan (the joker) Glickman says something with Cary Sherman its neatly bundled into into the MAFIAA bundle.
The reason I mention this is, to explain why (im guessing) GF would refer to that being as “your statement”.

Yes, we did have a brief (and civil) exchange of emails after the whole TPB thing happened, I dont expect you to remember as I am sure you must have had hundreds if not more emails which were not civil, just as you were upset when tpb boys got axed in court we were upset with some of the comments about you on the web, while we too are guilty of sometimes saying harsh/rude to people we find on the extreme opposites of our views and ideologies (no reference to you, more like Cary Sherman/RIAA etc) we (at ezee) were still upset with some of the comments from people to you about sand in ..(you know) and calling you different ‘names and things’.

Although I cannot find those emails I remember writing and getting a response from both you and your husband, your response (if I remember correctly and i think it might strike a chord in your memory) was something to the effect of: “I’ve said what i had to say, and atleast its now in the open and will encourage discussion”, which I totally agreed with.. discussion is good, copyright discussion with regards to music very good, and with regards to the internet: excellent.

Oops, I think this comment has gotten too big so I’ll end it quickly after one point:
“…but, what they were doing was indeed deemed illegal”
Under (actual) Swedish law it was not illegal, that whole trial/appeals was/is a joke with the Swedish judge/s tied to various copyright industries, and more importantly the music copyright industry who wanted TPB on a platter for the longest time. Which is why TPB case is not closed.

But even if you dont agree with the above, consider this, I can copy the entire TPB database on a usb stick and distribute it to whoever i want openly, and those torrents are still legal, because torrent files are just hashes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_table).
I can openly give these hash files (torrents) to anybody i wish to, friends, family, you, the police, judges etc and no law is broken – i cannot be punished.
Now if someone were to take these hashes, stick them into a p2p app and download the resulting file… you come into the illegal copyrighted/infringement part, and thats the user who’s guilty of infringement – not me for giving them the hash. So no… TPB was legal in every sense under Swedish law mostly because technology had raced miles ahead of legislation, and still is ahead even after the knee jerk laws are coming in.

Heck, I can go on but this comment has gotten really big, I apologize for that.

The quote that you are referring to above was not made by me and did not come from my
email address and is not something that I had written. LIke I said, the first mails to TPB were simply standard emails
(even copy pasted) and sent to hundreds of sites.

By the way, in a thread I saw that you said you had spoken to me before last year by email?

I think GF meant this:
“this is legal copyright and has not been authorised to be released as an illegal download.”
(http://static.thepiratebay.org/legal/indianagregg_resp.txt)

Indiana, absolutely no disrespect meant but.. this is a contradiction in itself (taken from your above comment) :
“I completely understood how a torrent file worked”…”I claimed that what TPB was doing was illegal, yes.”

“TPB’s legal section actually IS propaganda!”
Prey tell… how (please see note below)? I find it most funny and amusing and one of the best part of the sites, even better than the pages that have the torrent links.

I (we at eZee actually) find your comments most amusing Indie – you give us so much material to work with, and we are in the process of writing a 3-4 part little mini-series based on your comments all over the web , I actually want to respond to a few of the points you raised above but thats going to take up a lot of space here and in some parts may actually come up as flaming (dont want to break p2pnet rules) so kindly note that your responses may be used in the forthcoming article/s on eZee, along with Lily Allen, James Blunt etc.

I would just like to make one little thing clear, even though it might seem like we have a ‘problem’ with you,thats not true… its your opinions and ways of thinking, everyone is entitled to their opinion even fools (no reference/disrespect to you) but the fact that you are working/pushing to get those opinions onto others is what we have a problem with.

And yes, I do think artists should be paid and copyright should not be abolished.

I wont take any offense if you dont reply to me – because i did mention we may use your response, either way I wish you a very happy and bright day and good health.

I claimed that what TPB was doing was illegal, yes.

I have nothing to do with the RiAA. I’m simply an independent artist.

By the way, I didn’t write any mail about ‘authorised illegal downloads’ to TPB. My first email to TPB was a polite request that they take down the link.
I likewise didn’t write anything about a torrent file or audio file in those emails. (We had signed an NDA with bittorrent like a year before our mails to TPB. I completely understood how a torrent file worked. Where do you read this kind of stuff? Sorry, but, TPB’s legal section actually IS propaganda!)

I read the pbay legal threats when it originally was posted.

I went back again now and sorry but you are wrong and proved yourself to ne a liar.

You cannot be trusted to tell the truth. You try to impose US laws on a Swedish-owned site, yet you aren’t even a lawyer. Just as the RIAA uses foreign and domestic taxpayer-funded police forces to arrest people who do not do anything illegal.

You stated you were close to bankruptcy, but then let it slip that you are actually a millionaire.

You claimed that filesharing and torrents are illegal. Where is that even written into a law?

You also showed that you do not understand the difference between a torrent file and an audio file, and claimed that the torrent file on pirate bay was not an “authorised illegal download”. I’m still trying to figure that one out.

The world – and the music industry – does not need or want people like you who continue to spout RIAA lies and propaganda – even though you aren’t in the RIAA, you support their lies.

Please go away and just continue to count your millions.

let’s hope not.

What say you of what we’ve been saying with the problems of levies?

You still seem to have the idea that “levy or 3-strikes” and ask us to choose the lesser of the two evils.

We’re trying to tell you there are other ways and we need to build upon those so they appear as attractive as levies.

3 strikes are being rejected. It may very well be a stepping stone for some agenda we don’t know of. But we’re not just sitting ducks either. You know, MIT has online courses free to view. One of them deals with networking and security and one of the assignments is ‘how would you crash the internet? (Please do not do this)’

That’s a hint that if ppl try to control it we’ll crash it. The users do have the power. The money lost would make us “criminals” and “terrorists” meanwhile no one would dare call something like ACTA on similar terms for such acts as violating peoples’ rights and liberties.

I think we might understand you more than you think, it’s just what we’re saying is something you don’t see as viable. What you’re saying is something we don’t see as viable.

DA and Dredd have both said what will happen with the levy, guaranteed, because here in Canada we have said levy and all you get are people wanting more.

Hell, I’m thinking of applying for a royalty, I’ll figure out what later, but I’ll just claim I’m losing $13 billion each month, back it up with complete bullshit, and send a few thousand dollars to MP’s, and voila, I collect royalties on whatever I choose.

You in? Easy money!

Oh and ACTA IS about copyright! There’s didly squat about trades and tariffs and loads about … copyrights.

We need to stop ACTA dead in its tracks! And we need to stop the corporations. It’s not the government you worry about, they are just puppets for their corporate influences. Remember the movie Why We Fight? When was the Military Complex first described? Yes WAY back then! That wasn’t just the Pentagon, that was the suppliers of military equipment trying to hold on to their business models at all costs! The entertainment industry is a little slow, which is good in this regard, as they just now decided to copy such a behaviour.

Who knows, maybe in 20 years you’ll see $696 billion going towards copyright policing, internet policing, locked down computers with a single button, DPI up the ying-yang, and total privacy invasion (as in your doctor knows what is wrong with you before you do).

You don’t need to worry about me getting upset. (Although, this is new for me. I”m the type of person who likes to actually ‘talk’ to people in person or over skype, telephones, things like that:) Sometimes I get the impression that talking to people via these kinds of comment boards (or even over yahoo) leaves too much room for interpretation. In fact, before I ever spoke to Jon last week, I had left a comment on the A2f2a site and already people had all kinds of ideas about me, who I am, etc. All due to the way they interpreted a blog and a couple of emails last year. In fact, about a month ago, I noticed there were sites who were accusing me of making comments and using an alias and all kinds of nonsense. So, I had to actually physically prove that those comments could not have been from me. One of the problems with the internet is that people can impersonate, denigrate, libel and even spread mass rumours of abuse about other people. But, anyway, that’s the evil side of human nature I guess. It’s hard to understand the motivation behind doing something like that though.

“We don’t want you running away. We’re not afraid of the Copyright Cops, we’ll just go underground and remain ahead of them, it’s how it always is. And who loses? The artists. So if you want to not lose, we can’t do anything like the past or any rehash or remix or Hollywood knockoff of a great former Japanese or Korean idea. It has to come from the blaze generated when artists and fans hit head to head and hash out their differences, hopefully in a respectful way.”

Robert:)
The way I see this is that it’s not really about Copyright Cops or the RIAA. From my point of view, these issues go much deeper than most people want to admit. Sure, you can go underground and ’share’ via darknets, VPNs, etc. But, in reality, doing that would ultimately defeat the purpose of what you are trying to preserve, which is indeed these freedoms of exchange that you’ve expressed. And, there are many points that I completely agree with you on. The truth is, you don’t need to be close with Bill Gates, Elton John or Bono for what you are aiming for. Nor do I. But, even Richard Stallman had something to say about the economics involved here. The cat is likewise out of the bag with e-Commerce. We’re not going to be able to stuff it back in. You may argue that he exchange of information and the vision of the creators of the internet were pure at inception, just as perhaps the technology behind the A-bomb was. However, both have exploded. In the early nineties, I as working on a US Naval base, the agenda regarding information was already evolving and what is happening now sounds a lot like some of the discussions that went on back then. Now, we’ve had the explosion. The internet is part of today’s economy. It’s not going to disappear.

In reality, this is not simply a war between P2p and the RIAA or the major labels, nor is it simply about how musician’s can find alternative income streams. On the surface, that’s what everyone sees and that’s what’s been focused on. But, I have the fear that ultimately, we could be creating an easy target via a government and a globalisation agenda whereby this kind of ‘corporate versus the people’ legislation (3 strikes) could open up a wormhole to more power. In fact, pushing ‘you’ to usind dark nets, could ultimately place you in the exact position that a select few would like you to be pushed into.

I sent the Mandelson response to Jon precisely for this reason. However, virtually nobody picked up on a couple of lines in that letter that from my perspective, stood out like a sore thumb. In fact, if you re-read the letter, it insinuates that they don’t even believe that 3-strikes would work, but, they need to pass this so that they can get to stage 2 and so on. (That’s how legislation works) and before you know it, they work their way back into a position of control.

However, although history repeats itself, we are in a better position than ever before to negotiate. The very essence of the digital age means that black boxes don’t need to exist anymore. We can have complete transparency. We can hold people and organisations accountable. It’s the first time in history where we have the technology, the voice, and the for many, the willingness (all at the same time) to create a structure that could work for everyone. Right now, you have a situation where people are creating things that cost money and time to create. (Film, music, etc.) At the same time, people are copying those works and consuming them like water. The ISPs are the pipeline and the websites are the faucets. The governments are getting involved whether we like it or not. (History repeats itself). Unless there is a viable alternative to something like 3-strikes, we’re just letting them plough through and create a very dangerous agenda. Telling the film industry that their actors need to go out and reproduce the film live in the park or at somebody’s house simply won’t work. Everyone talks about alternative income streams for musicians, how does this apply to films?

That’s the perspective that I was writing the piece about the public license and the ISP levy from and I believe that it would have to cover everyone (not just traditional media, music, film, etc. I’m talking about sites like this one, where Jon is putting loads of work out there and people are ‘consuming’ and sharing information. It’s under a creative commons license. But, if we were to set this up right, a guy like Jon could benefit from the ISP levy side) Let’s say Jon uses other people’s media and that helps draw traffic, based on the traffic, he could pay a minimal license fee which he would report to a collection society (similar to reporting your annual income). Nothing changes, still all people have the right to come and read Jon’s work, listen to Jon’s music, etc. Only here, Jon has some form of compensation.

I completely agree with you that talk isn’t cheap and that it’s not ‘all talk and no action’.

@ Dreddsnik, it would be cool if you would express your points and ‘point of view’ with me rather than going into an attack mode. I don’t have some tower or lofty position. I’m a musician who is also an entrepreneur and I have to raise capital and negotiate just like anybody else does. My worries are much different than how you perceive them. I simply can’t turn a blind eye to what is happening in the government and amongst corporate telecoms. Sorry, but, it freaks me out. I think that they will use p2p as an excuse to push through some laws and I stand my ground that telecoms, websites and ISPs are using creative people’s works to exploit.

Have you read about ACTA? Do you realize if Canada agrees to join to avoid any more bullshit trade issues with the US, all of our townhalls, all of our petitions, all of our letters will be thrown out.

That’s what Dreddsnik is talking about.

We write, they ignore because they get paid by corporate lobbyists. So how do we fight? We spread the truth or at least something closer to the truth and we boycott. Yes artists will suffer, but once the lobbyists have no money to lobby the politicians will listen to the people.

The real people in the towers are those in the labels and trade organizations, the ones that make the decisions and the rest are ignored.

I’m sure your replies from the people you wrote to were honest and sincere sounding. We need real action. Ideally, something like Synapse would come into play here (see the movie Anti-trust) because at this point we could broadcast the dirt on all the corporations at once, including governments, and then their dirty laundry is out in the open. No more bullshit secrecy, no more ACTA as a matter of ‘national security’ which is a pile of garbage.

Internet passports will not happen because as always techies will find away around it. All they (lobbyists and lawmakers and enforcers) will do is piss the masses off who’ll act with violence while the techies simply do what they do; they solve problems and create a new darknet, adhoc network, new devices, and those that are about actual sharing of information (”Oh hey Bob, here’s how you code that FTP server in GNU/Linux” and “Oh hey Indianna, here’s my lastest late night piece of music that frees some of the demons racing through my brain every day”) as people have done for centuries.

You see, we view the internet quite differently from you. We can see how you view it and we comment that it is different by saying ‘that ain’t right’ because your version (media) sounds way too corporate. What people use the globalized network (internet) for is up to them, that’s the key, FREEDOM!

There is NO freedom in TV or Radio, radio sucks big time and TV sucks too, it’s crap generated by people who think they know what the ‘people’ want. How many versions of American Idol do we really need? All have the same horrible scream track as if the studio audience was really enjoying that garbage.

At least with the internet it IS level for any one to put up anything they wanted, not desiring a charge. If they want to charge for content they can, if they don’t, they can – no levy/license required! It’s all about freedom of choice and the Internet is the LAST place for it!

Once that’s gone you’ll lose the global connection we have. By gone? I mean passports or levy/license. You’ll drive it away. That’s the problem with people like Rupert Murdoch, they are so fucking closed-minded and money hungry they can’t do anything right without screwing people. They don’t care about the common good or artists or consumer. “Just give me the rent!” is all it will be (yes, Joe Pesci in The Super).

Rupert knows nothing about the internet or what it is really about. Originally designed by DOD back in 1967 for purpose of communication should one or more interconnection centres be blown to bits by an ICBM. In the ’80’s it was developed further from ARPA to DARPA to just universities and then finally opened up to where it belongs, the public! The inventors felt it would be a great tool for people to communicate and share information, copy files, write to one another, share software, and eventually digitized music. The inventors and investors had originally hoped it would help unite the world, not segregate and monetize it.

Remember that last line, because that’s the philosophy here. We have already said you will still get paid and people will still copy and not pay. You just assume you’ll have to busker and play in parks. Those are impromptu, not regular. When you do it regular, it is not a scarce good now is it? So it loses the effect. I had figured you were reading up on Connect With Fans and Reason To Buy. We keep saying because it is what works!

We want to work together, but it won’t work if each keeps rehashing their beliefs as if the other isn’t getting it. We know where you are coming from, but do you fully understand where we are coming from? Maybe my little note on philosophy will help.

Dreddsnik is frustrated, like many others, because we hear the same thing “levy” and “internet tax” and it all boils down to “we don’t trust you, why would you pay? so we’ll get our money somehow” and that’s what we hate most! You have to give a reason for us to pay and music itself is no longer that reason, correction COPIES are no longer that reason.

I bought Matthew Good’s album Vancouver recently. I also became a huge fan from 2006 to 2007, it was a developmental process. I had copies from friends sharing with me (copy of music) the ENJOYMENT that is Matthew Good’s music. That’s what they share, that’s what we share, the enjoyment. We introduce one another to new things and call it sharing, sharing the knowledge. I digress.. it was Matt’s website that made me into a hard-core true fan! It was his Connecting With Fans and his Reason To Buy (concerts are amazing, no t-shirts, just a huge connection with the fans through the performance, felt real, didn’t feel like it was a ‘job’). His site, he used to allow comments but naturally some people are stupid and ruined it by pushing close to the edge. Some people abuse it for everyone (don’t assume file sharers here because RIAA members are JUST as guilty if not more).

Back to MG, it his HIM commenting and posting articles about world news and engaging with fans by replying to their comments. He pays for the site out of pocket, not the label, and he moderates with help of two awesome dudes named Dale and Duane. They help with site coding as MG is not a coder. Until recently MG would stick around after the show, by the tour bus, signing autographs. He has health issues and it puts him at a huge risk, given the H1N1 and cold season, this tour he’s not doing that much if at all.

The point – he still connects with fans! Hell, he even posted an article by me, after asking me to write it. Can you imagine how that made me feel? Fuck, if the guy would let us, we’d donate so he could have his massive media site he wants, but he won’t do that, he has principles that we fans don’t quite understand but respect anyhow. I’d easily pay $100 to jam with him and 15 ppl in a park or at his place, no buskers, no official crap, how can they tell anyhow? You don’t do it regularly and no one comes after you (except ASCAP or SOCAN but if you don’t put your music in their repertoire, you can give them the finger).

And there are artists doing even more than MG does. I only wish I was more into him sooner, when he moved out of one apartment he held a private show for the fans for free. Just Matt and an acoustic and 15 or so fans and food and relaxing. How awesome would that be, especially with the Vancouver sun set in the background!!!

All because he connects with fans, doesn’t levy, doesn’t even accept donations (again, strange, we WANT to show how much we appreciate, obviously cooking for him is out, too creepy for him or too up-close-and-personal).

This is the reason to buy, not t-shirts or thongs or whatever as you mentioned as a non-sustainable business model.

This is the new model and that’s why it is so foreign, there’s nothing to sell like a sales job, it’s YOU who is sold. You already described some great things.

New artist can do all this. Artists under the labels thumbs… we’ll have to figure out a way to get them out from that situation. But the labels must go.

Producers, session musicians, song writers, are all needed. They contribute to the music. They don’t advance money and demand it back and then some (labels).

If I ever get time to actually write something worth listening to (yes i have a myspace account) and I wanted to record it professionally? I’d PAY a drummer a one time fee, and a producer/mixer (I need another set of ears and someone with experience), and I’d hire someone to help market or manage by calling the venues. But they would be negotiated fees or one time fees. If the drummer wants to steady income, he has to play steady. It IS that simple and that IS how it is from what I have read from session musicians.

You have to work for it. If you write, like Dianne Warren, same thing, you write, you get paid for writing. The deal with copies is really pointless with the internet unless you Connect With Fans. Don’t connect and only offer tshirts, you miss out. Engage, chat, perform, cook whatever, you will see steady income.

I could just imagine how many of my cousin’s cyclocross frames would be sold by now (he designs bike frames and wheels) if I had “fans’ because they’d be on the team! Yes, we’d ride together and race together, with the understanding that we’re not “fan and artist – sign this smile pose” it’s RUN, fast, dismount, over the barrier, REMOUNT, don’t stop the momentum, watch that off-camber, pedal, pedal, get into the big chain ring, go go go”

I hope you get my points.

We view things differently. We need BOTH sides understanding that. We are right now spending too much time saying eachother’s sides, we’re already repeating, let’s actually UNDERSTAND where the other is coming from! Let’s understand the new ideas we propose. Let’s understand where you are coming from.

“I know what you want” if you are thinking that then you don’t. Your replies indicate as such. You’re part way there and we’re part way understanding you.

a2f2a.com will naturally have heads banging. This is part of the process. Did any of you, Henry included, actually think we’d just harmoniously mix? Come on, if you did you need to get off the drugs or try better coffee. Seriously, we come from different worlds! Totally different worlds. We’re not universes apart, but we are very far apart. Some are closers than others, like you Indianna, you are closer to us than say Bono of U2 or Sir Elton John.

We’re not Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, we’re Steve Wazniack and Richard Stallman. That’s what we are.

But we’ve been attacked a lot too and we’re defensive. So if you see the aggression, try to take it with a grain of salt.

We don’t want you running away. We’re not afraid of the Copyright Cops, we’ll just go underground and remain ahead of them, it’s how it always is. And who loses? The artists. So if you want to not lose, we can’t do anything like the past or any rehash or remix or Hollywood knockoff of a great former Japanese or Korean idea. It has to come from the blaze generated when artists and fans hit head to head and hash out their differences, hopefully in a respectful way.

And there is NOTHING wrong with taking a breather so you don’t get upset. One must self monitor, if you feel the urge to say “who the fuck are you? I’m a or ” Then go for a bike ride! Or a walk or something and reply much later when you have lost that ego-generated defensiveness and we can keep moving forward.

We’ll have scuffles along the way, but let’s keep talking and deal with it. Talk is not cheap. Talk is not all talk and no action. This talking is understanding and listening and growing. It takes time!

~Robert

I don’t what makes you think that I have some special influence with lawmakers or some kind of ‘tower’. I’m pretty sure that Mandelson had no clue who I was when I wrote and nor did any of the EU members of parliament or other legislators I’ve written to. It’s not how thick your wallet is, it’s sheer numbers. Obviously, the record labels have deeper pockets than individuals.

It’s not some kind of ‘arrogant’ BS. People who want things to simply happen for them rather
than doing something about it are generally ‘arrogant.’

I’m not sure why you seem agressive. I don’t have anything to do with the RIAA or the MPAA. I haven’t
even been in north america since 1994 other than a few trips to see family and friends. Maybe stop writing
to local lawmakers and write to the one’s at the top.

Same arrogant BS.
We do.
We email.
We send letters.
We write petitions.
We write our local lawmakers.
It’s ignored.
Boycotting all RIAA/MPAA material is the first ‘extreme’
I don’t even want to imagine the next ‘extreme’ if too many people on the ground get stepped on by
those so ‘high above them’. I have already seen signs of it in the US. More and more violence, mass shootings.
It’s people that have had enough. It’s people that have reached the point of desperation as they feel they are
not going to be listened too if their wallet is too thin.

You might not realize that, i’ll admit. The view from your tower is probably pretty limited.

Contrary to popular belief, my mails to TPB were random. I had been writing mails to sites who I felt were exploiting art for over a year. As I had said, my core reasons for doing that is due to my belief that websites who exploit artists should also take part in the compensation and regeneration of art. From my point of view, TPB wasn’t any more or less ‘holy’ than anybody else. Also contrary to what you or anyone else might think, I don’t ‘hate’ them. In fact, I was saddened to see that they had been sentenced. I’ve given Peter my support and realised that they were also breaking ground. Nonetheless, I did tell him (peter) that I think he’s an arrogant ‘B’ (jokingly, but, honestly). Whether we criminalise them (TPB) or praise them, they’ve gone to an extent to defend what they believe in. In my opinion, that’s highly commendable. Obviously, however, it’s been to the detriment of the independent music industry… although, if I understand this to be correct, their goal was mostly to destroy the ‘corporate monopolies’. My opinion, I don’t believe it has been ‘fair’ for artists and creators in the meanwhile. I understand what their philosophy is. Obviously, I don’t agree with it, but, a good deal of the bits make sense.

I digress. Back to ‘Reader’s Write’s’ concerns about Kasperky. Yes, ‘internet passports’ are on the cards. In fact, a net re-write and a personal ID system is Highly LIkely. Don’t shoot the messenger. It’s been on the cards for a long time. Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen, I guess people think I’m for this. To be honest, if this was the 1960s, I would say that the people would protest and a better alternative would become the reality. Unfortunately, people are far too complacent these days. It’s really only by ‘extremes’ that people will actualy stand up and take account. You’re all too busy playing Xbox 360 or something. Nothing’s going to wake you up and smell the coffee. Far too many people are leaving comments. That’s great to leave comments… but, why not take hold of your keyboards and write to the policy makers. People seem to care just enough to leave a comment, but, don’t take the time to really take a step further. (I digress once again.)

Internet passports are a future prospect. It’s up to you to perhaps change it.

For me, Wikileaks is the most important website on the Internet. No matter who they are, corporations, greedy functionaries or corrupt politicians, their wrongdoings get posted on Wikileaks.

Now being a file sharer myself I understand quite a few of the concerns – now my artist side says that sharing music is a good thing specially since distribution is so easy and cheap. I think it is important that people like Peter and TBP do continue to do this work – even though clearly being conflicting with interests of other people.