Just a few months ago, the situation appeared grim for the file-sharing community, at least from a mainstream point of view. During the latter months of 2005, the MPAA began shutting down eDonkey2000 and BitTorrent indexing sites in earnest. The RIAA was suing music traders left and right, and the Supreme Court decision loomed like Hurricane Katrina.

And finally the Supreme Court decision hit. On June 27, 2005, in a rare 9-0 decision the Supreme Court remanded the case back to the lower courts. Specifically, the Supreme Court ruled, “We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties.”

As is typical by the mainstream media, the Supreme Court decision was heralded as an RIAA/MPAA victory. But the coming months would prove a much different situation.

Outside the P2P and file-sharing world yields two very different realities; the reality anti-P2P entities such as the RIAA/MPAA wish to portray, and the reality the P2P/file-sharing world wish to portray. Very rarely, if ever, do these two realities ever agree.

The significantly better publicized message anti-P2P entities portray is readily swooped up by the mainstream media. Well-written press releases often provide a significant chuck to an article for journalists unfamiliar with the file-sharing world. Headlines such as “P2P Use in decline”, “iTunes More Popular than Most P2P networks” and “File-Sharing Companies Defeated by RIAA/MPAA” have become all too common.