Philippe Aigrain » Sharing is legitimate

"By various steps along the past 30 years, not-for-profit file sharing between individuals for works covered by copyright was rendered illegal in most countries1 and most use cases. This does not prevent me from stating loud and clear that the act of taking a digitally published work one has obtained2, copying it, making it available to others or sending it to them is legitimate and an essential contribution to the establishment of a common culture. I intend to defend this position by developing the following arguments: making a case for the usefulness of sharing as delimited above, and defending that it is legitimate even without the authorization of authors; showing that when sharing is forbidden, impoverished cultural practice tends to replace empowering ones; and finally stressing that the prohibition of sharing will be regarded one day as a strange form of obscurantism...."