Where is Joseph Heller when you need him?

The ISPs are once again caught in the crossfire of the P2P debate, but this time they apparently are not doing enough to discourage P2P.

News reports state that ISPs are being sued throughout Europe by the entertainment industry for not doing enough to prevent piracy. This time it is Ireland and the ISP Eircom under fire. Meanwhile, in the U.S., the FCC continues to pursue hearings against Comcast (and possibly other service providers) for “delaying” uploads of P2P traffic.

Huh? Is anyone else confused? Which is it? Is it an ISP’s duty to support all traffic and applications, without judging which traffic is good and which is bad? Or does an ISP have the right – and actual duty – to ensure that their subscribers only use bandwidth for approved applications? And if so, who is to decide which applications are approved applications?

The fact is that P2P is here to stay, and those that embrace it stand to benefit financially. It is the most compelling and disruptive technology affecting the Internet in the last 10 years. It forces old industries to innovate and create new business models. When that occurs, the consumer wins. All of the time.

To those who argue that content providers and ISPs cannot compete with P2P because file sharing is free, look at Disney. While it is not based on P2P, here is a company that embraced digital distribution early, decided it must get ahead of the curve, and leveraged Internet video to create a new $1Billion-a-year revenue stream. As a consumer I can now watch “Lost” whenever I darn well please. I win…and they win. (Note to Disney: I still cannot watch it overseas; I still use P2P for that.)

Moving forward, P2P is becoming the next wave of mainstream digital distribution. It has matured way beyond free file sharing. For those who embrace P2P (service providers, content owners, advertisers), there is substantial money to be made; there are more than 100 million active P2P users today. For those who dig in their heels, complain, sue, and do everything to thwart its development, you probably will find your industry looking a lot like the music industry today.

Frank Childs