[hgffwpvn] P2P and trust

Agents of the MAFIAA and trojan writers put bad files onto peer-to-peer networks which turn up in a keyword search for a file, making life difficult for legitimate users of the network. (Poisoning)

In response, the network evolves and implements trust mechanisms to filter out the bad users, ultimately resulting in a large robust trust network, which is, among other things, a Holy Grail of public key infrastructure (PKI). This trust network may then be retargeted to help solve so many of the problems of the Internet today: spam, phishing, scams, viruses, denial-of-service attacks...

But alas, this future currently seems not meant to be. Legally, I blame the MGM v. Grokster decision. They could only see short-sightedly the copyright infringement, and not that peer-to-peer networks were the start of something wonderful in how they would affect the internet, and ultimately society. I sincerely hope the decision is reversed someday in court or by law.