I think the way they can systematically subvert legal precedent will eventually lead to impossibly tough Supreme Court issues.
Thread 👇
Napster’s centralized search made it liable for infringement
What do Kazaa/Limewire do? Package search into a protocol NO ONE owns. Historical case law wasn’t built for this. Nextgen p2p went to the supreme court
Instead, they fell back to intent. Grokster clearly marketed to music pirates, so that killed them.
Takeaway:
Intent was clear (advertised free copyrighted music) but still hard to litigate
Circuit court called this “willful blindness” but unclear if Supreme Court would uphold
Decentralization and crypto can obfuscate away responsibility. Only leftover options are intent and trial-by-stats. Tough spot for courts
• Central search not allowed? Fine, it’s decentralized
• You want a client side filter? Fine, BitTorrent doesn’t have a search. Leave that to The Pirate Bay
Litigating decentralized products informs how the nextgen should evolve
• Kill Napster? Dozens of replacements ready to step up
• Prosecute users? Political suicide. Who likes the DEA or RIAA?
• US hate you? Find a willing host. Compare extradition attempts of Escobar to @KimDotcom and Pirate Bay founders
How many free speech radicals do you need to invalidate this system? One?
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Pirate Bay guys ran a contrarian IPFS node
Tor is great for anti-censorship in hostile countries. Cryptocurrency is great for Venezuela. Facebook uses BitTorrent to push code updates.
Is that how you use them?
How far can we take this ambiguity game? I’m not sure there is a limit
Crypto and decentralization could polarize us towards anarchy or authoritarianism. True cyberpunk