Sharing Music One iPod at a Time

Only six more downloading days until the Supreme Court Grokster hearing (next Tuesday).  We're getting all tingly.  So should be the estimated 36 million Americans who say they've downloaded music or video files. 

Pew Internet & American Life Project interestingly also report today that their survey on downloading trends suggests that regardless of a potential crack-down on P2P services, Americans will find ways to share music in a more traditional one-to-one basis (albeit many gigs at a time).   Pew says that nine million Americans have grabbed music off of someone else's iPod (or other MP3 player - quick, name one).  And, 10 million have nabbed tracks via email or IM....

All of this matters because if the Supreme Court's Grokster decision sends copyright law to pre-Sony Betamax decision standard, than, theoretically, Apple, Google, Yahoo! and AOL could become the evil-doers du jour in the eyes of the RIAA/MPAA.  Or, more likely, the meaty target of trial lawyers working ad hoc to score big settlements for supposedly aggrieved content creators.

Other nuggets from the Pew study:

• Basically, the majority of Americans and Internet users support the RIAA/MPAA position on one of the core issues of the Grokster case:  Secondary liability.  "49% of all Americans and 53% of internet users believe that the firms that own and operate file-sharing networks should be deemed responsible for the pirating of music and movie files. Some 18% of all Americans think individual file traders should be held responsible and 12% say both companies and individuals should shoulder responsibility."  We assume that the study is saying then that 61% (49+12) of Americans think that the operator of file-sharing networks should be held responsible in some form.
• "57% of broadband users believe there is not much the government can do to reduce illegal file-sharing, compared to 32% who believe that enforcement would help control piracy."