Is File sharing in trouble?

There has been a lot of news lately about the crack downs on download sites, P2P programs and other torrent resources. Just recently the Limewire website was shutdown displaying a nasty “…under court order” splash screen leaving users wondering when and if at all the website would be back up and running.

Kazaa was recently ordered by a federal court to put some kind of filter in place to disallow copyrighted material or other illegal content from being shared via its network.   The entire P2P industry is on the watch for further federal action and additional mandates to bring the sharing of illegal material or other copyrighted material to an end.

This certainly brings back memories from the original Napster days when all of the sudden the wide open sharing of any and all MP3’s out there came to a screeching halt with Metallica crying foul.  It is sometimes difficult to see how the sharing of one or two little files can hurt an industry or even make someone blink an eye for the trouble of going after someone.  However, many argue that the impact as a whole is tremendous.  There have been many conflicting studies revealed which can either support one side or another.    So will we see file sharing as such in the future?  One thing is for sure – there will certainly be limits placed on the P2P software itself to make sure that certain illegal or copyrighted material is not available.  However, another thing is for certain, there are always tech savy developers out there that find ways around the limits that are placed in the tech world.  This is always a cat and mouse game and there is always plays and counterplays.