$0: Human; P2P: Divine

When will the Internet
community get
mature? As in, when
will they say “cease and desist!” to
activities like the sharing of files
(much in the manner of how
young boys collect stamps) and
actually use their proof-of-adult
credit cards?
UK rock band Radiohead
decided to find out. It was a
fusion of many things: good
music (we presume), the desire to
get going with Internet culture
(they spell the album name three
ways on the cover, including “IN
RAIN_BOWS”), the noble emotion
of not charging $20 or so for
a CD, and more. Here’s what they
did: they released the album on
their site—www.radiohead.com—
and you could fill in any amount
you wanted in the “pay” box.
About a third of the first million
downloaders did the square
thing and paid nothing. Some
misguided fans paid more
than $20. The average? An impressive
$8.
(a) What those who paid
more than $20 thinking, is our
open question to our readers.
Another open question:
(b) 2.4 lakh people got the album
off BitTorrent on the day of
release; why?