In a story that makes me equal parts dismayed and hopeful, it appears that U2’s longtime manager has been disparaging ISPs and P2Ps, but he has also been offering up some bona fide solutions to the problem. Let’s start from the beginning then, and I’ll try to sum this up as quickly and succinctly as possible. In the 1990s (back in the day, to use the parlance of our times) the government passed some laws about downloading that basically boiled down to “People who download can be prosecuted, but people who simply offer the hub where the downloading occurs cannot be prosecuted.”

This sounded great at the time, and no one really complained, least of all those of us who knew that for as long as they allowed these places to exist, we’d have places to get free music. Meanwhile the odds continued to mount against the industry, as there were simply too many pirates to prosecute. Now, the music industry is in shambles. The big guns have turned the turret on ISPs and P2Ps. They are far too late. Paul McGuinnes - U2’s manager - has a novel idea. He thinks the music industry should harness this technology to get their music to the public.

Does anyone else find it hilarious that after we’ve downloading music for free for nearly a decade, the music industry is finally realizing “Hey, maybe we should just do that too?”

Oh music industry, whatever is to become of you?