When it comes to music, movies or software piracy, most peer-to-peer networks do not want to know. Their lawyers contend that attempting to control what files their users share is not just technically impossible, but even trying it would open the companies up to lawsuits.
So it seems refreshingly honest to find a peer-to-peer network host that not only acknowledges its dubious content - it advertises it. EarthStation 5 boasts that its servers are the first to offer free streaming Hollywood movies, as well as direct downloads of movies, music, programs and serial numbers.
One might expect hordes of lawyers from the music, software and film industries to be hammering down the doors to the site, but so far they have not. The reason might be related to a legal notice on EarthStation 5's website: 'For service of process, you must serve our legal department located at our offices in the Jenin refugee camp, Jenin, Palestine'.
Some of the greatest inventions can be inspired by childhood experiences.
I was sent the following tale by a friend who used to work at British computer firm ICL (which is now part of Fujitsu). Back in the 1960s, one of his colleagues was Conway Berners-Lee, an academic best known for his work on the Ferranti Mark 1, the first commercial computer.
'He was an engaging, cherubic little man, quite at sea in a commercial environment but useful to trot out to impress prospective customers. One had to watch him, though; he had a tiresome habit of agreeing to give away hardware and ancillaries and I had to manoeuvre my way out of that more than once. [I was selling mainframes.] The fly customers knew they had only to ask for some bit of kit over coffee or drinks and he would say, 'Oh, yes, I should think so.'
'The stories of his eccentricity are legion, including one of a visit he made to somewhere in the Midlands and decided to take the family along for the ride. He left them in the city centre while he delivered his paper, wandered out afterwards, got into his car and drove home - sans family.'
