P2P Services in the Clear

Most of you know my viewpoint on music theft. I do it, but I know it's wrong. Sometimes I buy music, but sometimes I'm lazy, or sometimes I'm cheap. But I never defend the act of theft, I'm well aware that it's not a moral action, or a defendable one.

However, I don't understand why people are surprised about this ruling, where an appeals court ruled that P2P file sharing software is legal:

Wired News P2P Services in the Clear

Facilitating transfer of things isn't illegal, and should NEVER be illegal. Doing something illegal, sure. But not providing the medium that it happens IN.

Imagine this. My son dies from a drug overdose. I sue the state of California for providing the roads that the drugs came in on.

Does that sound absurd? Of course, but that's what suing P2P companies is like. They provide the roads, they're not responsible for what goes over them.

It's like suing AT&T after terrorists arrange a bombing over their phone lines.

I could come up with analogies all day, but you get the point. Thank god the courts do too.