Members of Congress may be leading a bipartisan effort that would give federal prosecutors the authority to prosecute people that use peer-to-peer networks, and collect fines and other monetary damages from those users.

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Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig has just released his new book, Free Culture (2004, Penguin; ISBN:1594200068), and he and the publisher have arranged to make the entire book available for free.

The book is available in many formats, including Adobe’s PDF, ZIP file, and Microsoft’s MS-Reader. The multiple format translation is made available courtesy of Blackmask Online, a publisher of HTML books focusing on mystery and horror using content borrowed from the Gutenberg Project.

Additionally, the book is available in several audio-only versions.

The manufacturing and distribution of the audio-only versions are possible because the book’s copyright is governed by a Creative Commons license. Free Culture’s license allows people to to copy, distribute, display, and perform the book, as well as make derivative works as long as people give credit to Lessig and do not look to make commercial uses of the work or its derivations.

It will be very interesting to see what, if any, effect Lessig’s approach has on sales of the physical book. The publisher, Penguin, should be commended for allowing Lessig to follow this approach.

What is SNTReport.com?

SNTReport.com "Social Software for the Information Professional" is an electronic publication that analyzes social software and how it affects the work of information professionals.

SNTReport.com (http://www.sntreport.com) began publishing in March 2004.

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Once the exclusive domain of federal prosecutors, strategies aimed at shutting down peer-to-peer networks are now being studied by state attorneys general, according to a March 15 story published in News.com.

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A recent News.com story outlines how one peer-to-peer network has reconfigured its business model into a content distribution business.

"Red Swoosh and rival Kontiki, along with a handful of other companies, say peer-to-peer technology allows content distributors to pass off much of their distribution costs–largely in the form of Net bandwidth charges–to their customers," according to the article. "For companies distributing large files to many people, such as gaming or video publishers, that can be a huge benefit, they say."

John Borland. Legal P2P Networks Gaining Ground. News.com. March 11, 2004.