With the RIAA suing everyone with an iPod, including kids and dead grandmothers, illegal, free, P2P file sharing has become increasingly tough. Hopping on Limewire, Kazaa, or any other P2P network is sort of like having indiscriminate, unprotected sex. Sure it is awesome, but one unlucky download, and you are going to contract on hell of an online STD.
It got me thinking. Why not move this activity low-tech and setup some offline P2P file sharing groups? This idea very well exist in practice somewhere already, but with the proliferation of the iPods, and the ease with which files can be moved from portable storage device to PC, or even from storage device to storage device (if you have a lot of time to kill), this seems like a simple and safe way to share music. I for one, have about 2,000 Mp3’s on my iPod that I would be happy to share with some friends if they shared back some of their collection. Friend to friend, offline, with no fear of viruses, this would be super sweet.
Now, I understand that this is still illegal file sharing, and I am not condoning that. I don’t want a million comments telling me that this is illegal, and whining about the pros and cons of file swapping. I am merely suggesting, that a group of 5 or 10 friends with some iPods, a laptop, and a few cords, could easily sit around, share some beers, and swap copious amounts of music in a very safe way.
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