Referring back to the article itself, I couldn't agree more with the notion that the kneejerk reaction against Kazaa and the technology behind it is purely based on fear.
The business model that these large scale industries are based on works by having a chokehold on the 'product' right from it's conception through to any possible use the customer might make of said product.
This goes up in smoke when the product ceases to be a neat physical package and becomes a large glob of binary freely distributable through a variety of means (means which have been relentlessly flogged to the public by big business - "you simply must have a PC with CD burner, you must be internet ready.....").
When the RIAA and it's associates should be wising up to the possibilities of a more dynamic, freeform environment to operate in, they are instead throwing money into the process of doing the only thing it knows how to do - bury it's rivals by force of high marketing spend (which won't work because there is no hiding the fact that they are providing an increasingly obsolete service) or by litigation. The idea of the litigation approach has served them well in the past as it can not only take out a 'ringleader' but will send a warning to others - that is the useful thing about legal precedents.
If I can close my ramble with a recommendation, I would advise all to Neal Stephenson's 'In The Beginning Was The Command Line' which makes some interesting points about software licensing.
