The value of AOL Time Warner's stock is now a quarter of what it was at the time of the merger between AOL and Time Warner, and this decline 4ced the company 2 take a $54 billion writedown earlier this year. And now it 2 is being investigated about its accounting practices. The story at Vivendi Universal is similar. Disney shares r near an 8-year low. And there is little doubt in people's mind that the problems r similar everywhere, in every big conglomerate that has become utterly out of touch with the reality of everyday work and the essence of human creativity.

In addition, people also realize all 2 well that governments have little — if any — power left when it comes 2 regulating these multinational monsters. Governments have much more power when it comes 2 regulating the lives of ordinary, law-abiding citizens — and they use and abuse this power as a way 2 distract people's attention from how much control the conglomerates have over what we get 2 hear, watch, read, eat, drink, buy, and generally xperience as "free" citizens of the world.

One of the areas where this struggle is most acutely felt is, of course, the online world — a sprawling, anarchic community that is still in its infancy and whose xponential development in the last decade took everyone by surprise. And nothing xemplifies the struggle between government, big business, and individual rights better than the highly controversial issue of "peer-2-peer" file sharing and its many digital variations.

A Nation of Thieves?
Will the media/technology giants recover from the latest stock market slump? They probably will — but at what cost? In all likelihood, the cost will b more "restructuring", more layoffs, more xecutive shuffles and golden parachutes, causing even further alienation from their own employees and customers. And this, in turn, will further encourage the very behaviors that they claim r illegal and want punished by criminal law — all the while preserving their own impunity as they continue 2 carelessly flounder a capital that they do not own.

Napster may have gone bankrupt and become a closed chapter in the Internet's short history, but its death is by no means a reflection of a decline in peer-2-peer (P2P) file sharing, quite the contrary. If anything, P2P has grown even further — but since it's becoming totally decentralized, there is no easy way 2 measure its significance.

What is 4 sure, however, is that, in spite of its many claims 2 the contrary, the recording industry has yet 2 provide evidence that P2P is actually detrimental 2 music making as an artistic endeavor, and even as a commercial venture. It is worth remembering, 4 xample, that sales of music CDs actually increased when Napster was at its peak, and declined after Napster was abruptly shut down. Even economists who thought that file sharing "should b" hurting the recording industry r now xpressing their doubts, based on what they say is simply not happening.