"The recording industry has sued the music downloaders into submission, but as a model of communication, their effects still echo around the world. The proliferation of such peer-to-peer networks may appear to threaten many established institutions, and the backlash against them could be even worse than the problems they create. Their effects - good and bad - resonate far beyond markets for music. They are altering our sense of the possible, extending...

"Copyright reflects far more than economic interests. Embedded within conflicts over royalties and infringement are cultural values - about access, ownership, free speech, race, class, and democracy - which influence how rights are determined and enforced. Questions of legitimacy - of what constitutes "intellectual property" or "fair use," and of how to locate a precise moment of cultural creation - have become enormously complicated in recent years,...