don't forget it's a two-way street...

Having never traveled to a third world country, I had never really considered the cultural effects of peer to peer networks. As Siva Vaidhyanathan notes in The Anarchist in the Library, many natives of India, Africa, or Mexico cannot afford to buy a CD, DVD, and definitely not a computer. This is what is commonly known as the digital divide. However, because of black markets and straight out copyright infringement, they have access to pirated technology at a significantly lower price. I think that this opportunity is a great one. As Vaidhyanathan pointed out, without pirated software, business people in India would have trouble getting their jobs done. It's not like they would be buying most of this technology full price either. Many people in these countries are lucky to make $5 a day. How can we expect them to buy a $15 CD?

Whether you like it or not, we live in the age of globalization. A teenage girl in a small African village may have very likely heard of say, Justin Timberlake and want the opportunity to dance to his pop music. I don't think she will lose her cultural identity by being exposed to this music, and I bet JT would not be too upset at learning he lost a few bucks because this girl was listening to a pirated copy of his CD. He'd probably even want to give the girl a real copy.

Anyways, to get back on topic, the cultural divide that can result as a consequence of the digital divide is shrinking because the mass availability of peer-to-peer networking. In the same way, African artists, for example, are able to get their music to a wider audience. I think this is a great thing and what globalization should be about. We should have greater access to other cultures just as much as they learn to love McDonald's, Starbucks, and Justin Timberlake. Don't be so concerned with control that you overlook the great opportunity that peer-to-peer networking can provide.