This article discusses the increasingly complex situation of P2P file sharing and most notably examines its effects on the music industry in Britain. It discuses the measure which record companies take to prevent file sharing as well as the general opinion on privacy and copyright from both sides.

Illegal downloads have, for years, been the bane of the music industry. With more and more potential customers opting to get their music for free from pirate sites, the music industry has taken many actions against P2P—peer to peer—file sharing networks. Largely, they have been ineffective. The Digital Britain plan, with its mandate to expand high-speed access, threatens to vastly expand the means by which most P2P sharing networks are accessed: broadband Internet service. Conversely, there is a public perception that the privacy of Internet users is being compromised by undue influence on the specifics of the plan being exercised by the entertainment industry. File sharing and music sharing find themselves the principal symbols of both online privacy and copyright infringement.

File sharing is largely dependent upon the fast download speeds allowed by broadband Internet access. Expanding this access, of course, is likely to make the activity more attractive to consumers. Especially with the economic situation as difficult as it currently is, consumers are looking for ways to limit their spending and entertainment, luxury that it is, is certain to be an expense where any cutbacks will be regarded positively. For the record labels, this creates a situation where ubiquitous broadband access could result in vastly more music sharing.

Illegal downloads, while they do have a significant impact on the music industry, require rather invasive technologies to detect, at least at the consumer level. People are naturally hesitant to give up their expectation of surfing the Internet without government or corporate examination of their activities and P2P file sharing is oftentimes used for completely legitimate types of file sharing. Video games, for instance, sometimes make use of bit torrent technology, a protocol heavily used by P2P networks, to download patches and enhancements to the programs. Separating the legitimate from the illegal downloads would, obviously, require enough electronic snooping to differentiate between the good and the bad usage.

Of course, P2P sharing is really a secondary concern to the aims of Digital Britain. Digital Britain is touted as a means to bring Britain up to the technological challenges of the 21st Century and to provide citizens with access to services that have been transformed during the last decades from luxury to necessity. It has been likened to having all the importance to modernization as did the electrical grid at the end of the 19th Century. Whatever its impact on music sharing, it is indicative of the fact that the world is changing and that the record labels and artists are now engaged in an entirely new market than they were in the past.

P2P file sharing, with its many uses, is unlikely to be eliminated by government action or action from any other sector, in reality. In fact, the ability for a file to propagate across several different computers is the essence of the decentralized sort of networking that has made the Internet so useful. Where works that aren't under current copyright are concerned, such as public domain texts and other media, P2P is incredibly useful and functional.

Barring any serious restrictions being levied against online usage, P2P file sharing, and illegal downloads, are likely here to stay. Eliminating one form of the practice is akin to fighting the hydra, with two or more services popping up almost instantly to take its place. The reality of the situation as that P2P has improved over the years and is unlikely to ever leave, though it could be rendered less attractive to consumers by creative marketing on the part of the record companies.