Dan Gillmor has a post about Lindows using P2P distribution networks to get the Lindows Live CDs out to users. As he states in his article, this is a great example of the positive use of these networks. With music and movie companies spreading fear and doubt far and wide, it’s great to have an absolute positive example in the business arena. Like others have said before, what really scares the music and movie industries isn’t really piracy and theft of IP, they are afraid of losing their control of the means of distribution. Once people can output music that they’ve made by themselves and it can reach thousands of listeners, the music industry has lost their dominance of their niche. If that happens they can’t ensure the margins they demand and keep the sales numbers they want. So they fight to keep that channel controlled, using piracy as the smokescreen legal gambit.