RIAA's and IPI's efforts to stop the file-sharing networks from spreading copyright infringing files seem to pay off. Mashboxx will acquire Grokster, Kazaa has a few months to become a legal activity and eDonkey is not doing very well either.

IPI has recently launched a software application that allows concerned parents to control their reckless children from becoming pirates, so we may conclude that 2005 was a very bad year for P2P networks.

But will they actually die? Probably not, because there are a lot of users who don't realize that at some point they could be sentenced for copyright infringement. And as long as there will be a developer with some experience who needs only a few days to create a P2P client, there will also be some thousands of users illegally sharing files.

So far, the organizations concerned with defending copyrights have succeeded to reduce the phenomenon. These organizations should stop hunting down those involved in P2P networks and start inventing some affordable commercial alternatives.

The iTunes model has proven that a lot of people are willing to pay 99 cents for a song and surely there will be others who would pay even more to see a movie.

So, until we see other similar solutions, the illegal file-sharing networks will continue to have followers.


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