The Internet is a market place of ideas, and, increasingly, of creative work – a bazaar, if you will. But just as the real bazaar cannot thrive if the public can steal at will – without rewarding those who bring their wares to market, the Internet cannot thrive as a medium for the distribution of wares of intellect and artistry, if the public steals and plunders, with no consideration for those whose work they have taken.

In many ways, P2P is the antithesis of open-source. Open-Source is many people contributing to creative work for the good of all. It is an activity that adds value, often making possible creative work that otherwise could not have existed, and always making the work involved better than it could otherwise have been. P2P is about many people leaching off the creative work of others, for their own benefit. It is an activity that drains value from the pool of creativity.

If these people are so clever, why don’t they create their own artistic works instead of siphoning off the works of others?

P2P is not about budding artists and garage bands finding audiences while bypassing greedy studios. Blogs, personal websites, and evolving forums, like YouTube and MySpace, perform that role, and do so increasingly well. The recent explosion in these alternative channels of personal expression renders inoperative the tired argument used by P2P purveyors to cloak their real motivation.