Online Music Sharing

Re “The Grokster Case’s Silent Majority,” Commentary, March 30: I agree with Chris Anderson’s commentary on peer-to-peer file sharing and the use of it to transmit original content on the Internet. To penalize software companies for the illegal actions of some of their users is like penalizing gun manufacturers when someone is killed using one of their products.

In fact, perhaps file-sharing supporters need to adopt a slogan that the courts are familiar with: “Software doesn’t steal content; content thieves steal content.”

Pat Reuter

Chicago

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As an amateur garage band composer myself, I greatly appreciated Anderson’s article considering the less discussed benefits of online music. The complaints of the media companies against Grokster and other file-sharing networks have always been about the loss of profits.

Although I’m sure this is a concern, there is another, deeper reason I believe they fear these new technologies. Up to now, this handful of mammoth media conglomerates have enjoyed the unrivaled ability to control our culture, a privilege that is under siege by consumers threatening to control their own culture. The people did not cry out for Ashlee Simpson. She was foisted upon us, a cultural manipulation that would never be possible in the consumer-controlled, PR-less world of online music.

Andrew Matthews

North Hollywood