Pirate Free Sharing

Wired News has a piece on ibiblio (nee SunSITE). The tail end of the article meshes nicely with a post I made earlier this week.

Over a plate of North Carolina’s finest pulled pork, Jones told us about a Colorado conference on file sharing he spoke at a few years back. Music industry executive Don Grusin was also on the panel.

“Grusin kept calling music downloaders pirates,” said Jones. “I thought that was just awful. I told him the people who care about music enough to download it are the people he should love the most.

“If the record companies reached out and showed some love and respect to downloaders, then everyone could work together to find a way to peacefully coexist.”

It’s odd to hear a college professor talking with not even a twinge of irony about showing the love, but it seems to come naturally to Jones.