I wrote already that I was happy to be Comcast-free in large part because I don’t think Comcast should be telling me what I’m allowed to use the Internet for (any more than my phone company has the right to tell me what I can say to the people I call).

Comcast, for those who missed it, has a policy of restricting Bittorrent traffic. Bittorrent is a terrific way for sharing large files, because it spreads the pain of delivering those files among lots of people. If you want to download demos of new games, or a version of Linux, Bittorrent is the way to go.

But it’s also used for music and movie piracy, so Comcast decided to limit all Bittorrent traffic by essentially flooding Bittorrent users’ connections with bogus data.

When accused of this, first the company denied it. (I.e., it flat-out lied.) Then the Associated Press, the EFF, and some others proved it was being done. The the FCC started an investigation. Now Comcast is defending the practice it said it wasn’t engaged in.

Ergo, screw them.

To paraphrase John Gilmore, the Internet interprets this kind of bullshit as damage and routes around it. In this case, per TorrentFreak:

Several BitTorrent developers have joined forces to propose a new protocol extension with the ability to bypass the BitTorrent interfering techniques used by Comcast and other ISPs.

It amazes me on a regular basis that companies and organizations think they really can stop a large number of users from doing what they want to. There comes a point where companies have to realize where the river is going and then realize they have to work with that flow.

At times, Bittorrent accounts for something like 25 to 30 percent of all Internet traffic. Think about that. Comcast really thought it could throttle that kind of usage? Clearly users want Bittorrent, and interfering with it would only mean those users would come up with a way around Comcast’s roadblocks.

The future, to any reasonable person, was obvious; Comcast wouldn’t stop it for long, and it would generate a lot of bad press in the meantime.

Every now and again you read a story about, say, a teacher who suspends a student for leaving class to talk to his father in Iraq. We all know how that will end up — outcry, apology, embarrassment — and I wonder why the teacher couldn’t see the obvious. Ditto for Comcast. Did it really think it would get away with this for long?

Probably. The music industry still hasn’t learned its lesson. It continues to sue its customers while not providing them what they obviously want: unprotected music they can play wherever they want to. And then it’s shocked — shocked — that vastly more music is acquired by piracy than legally.

A few quotes from Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching are appropriate:

If you overvalue possessions,
people begin to steal.

and

If you don’t trust the people,
you make them untrustworthy.

and finally

Throw away morality and justice,
and people will do the right thing.
Throw away industry and profit,
and there won’t be any thieves.
If these three aren’t enough,
just stay at the center of the circle
and let all things take their course.

Check out Woonz, which bills itself as "the audio search engine." Enter a song title or artist, and it provides you a list of matching MP3 files (and, I believe, other audio files) on the Net.

You’re presented with a list of files. For example, I got this when I searched on "Hootie":

(Click to enlarge.)

You can then click download, where you’re redirected… somewhere. Wherever it is, you’re given the standard browser download box. And moments later you have your song.

If you’re like me, you say, "Huh?" That… that can’t be legal. And indeed it’s not.

Woonz explains in its FAQ that it is simply a search engine targeted at MP3s that other folks have put online — something like doing a Google search with "filetype:mp3" added. Except that Google doesn’t support MP3 searches — just .doc, .xls, .pdf, and a few others.

There’s a disclaimer at the bottom of the page:

No files are cached or stored on Woonz servers, all data comes from thier various sources on the internet. Do not download copyrighted material without permission. Woonz is a search engine designed for LEGAL entertainment purposes only. This search engine is in no way intended for illegal downloads.

All well and good, except that Woonz doesn’t tell you where it’s getting the file! It’s kinda like Barry Bonds’s trainer giving him an unmarked pill and saying, "Don’t take any illegal drugs."

It feels like Woonz is on the right side of the law, but only barely. It’s just a search engine, and holding it liable for what it searches for might be a tough nut to crack.

But the argument "Well, it’s up to the user to determine whether he’s downloading legally" may not work when Woonz doesn’t give said user the information necessary to make that call.