Watch out! Technology has a habit of winning

Two related stories on Google News caught my eye today. One is this report by Wired on latest from the Australian Sharman Networks court case over the Kazza P2P software. The other a report in InfoWorld on the results of recent research completed on the sharing habits of digital music and video users.

Wired comments that "it's worth remembering that technology has a habit of winning in the end... If the music industry wants to survive, it needs to think outside the box and stay out of the courtroom."

It's an interesting comment because while the research (from the Pew Internet & American Life Project) reported in InfoWorld suggests the music industries actions are having an impact on Internet P2P file sharing, millions are still using informal sharing method. These informal sharing methods including e-mail, instant messaging and hardware-2-hardware (such as from one MP3 player to another).

Now considering that late last year saw the unveiling of the Samsung SPH-V5400, the first mobile phone with a 1.5GB hard drive, it really is only a matter of time before consumers will have the capability to share music through the "layer" of their choice from a single device. I wonder how the music industry would respond to a decentralised mobile phone based P2P music sharing system using some kind of wireless mesh networking? You know it could just work in densely populated areas or perhaps workplaces, universities or schools...