THE FUTURE

No law can be successfully imposed on a huge population that does not morally support it and possesses easy means for its invisible evasion.

Barlow, John Perry. The Next economy of ideas: will copyright survive the napster bomb? Nope, but creativity will. Wired, October 2000, pp. 240-252.

Developing peer-to-peer networking protocols and programs will enable users to simply and anonymously trade files with each other without the benefit of centralized databases. In this environment, can the concept of copyright exist?

The next wave of peer-to-peer is Gnutella, Freenet, and other decentralized, distributed services, where no one is in charge. Ian Clarke, the principle creator of Freenet, has said, "If someone put a gun to my head and said, 'Shut this down,' I would be unable to do so."

Heilemann, John. David Boies: the Wired interview. Wired, October 2000, pp. 253-259.

As technology for producing and disseminating informational works evolves, it seems reasonable to assume that the law will continue to evolve as well. It is at least possible that the evolution will take us beyond copyright, but that obviously remains to be seen.

Pamela Samuelson, Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh Law School.