p2p-networks help law enforcement catch hard criminals

Comment to: Local man faces court on child pornography charges [1] by heraldstandard.com

As I see it, the only way the authorities did track him was due to his use of p2p-networks.

At the moment, technology makes it relatively easy for the police to track hard criminals in p2p-networks, but it also allows people to do small infringements rather safely (just like people don't stop at red traffic lights when there is no car in sight),

So I'd think the current state quite ideal.

Sadly there's an organisation called RIAA¹ which drives p2p-networks underground and which will eventually cease that action or achieve the "fame" to have been the one organisation which was responsible in the end for forcing p2p-networks to evolve into completely anonymous and untrackable networks, where hard crimes aren't trackable anymore.

So, this case shows once again, that noncommercial "piracy" shouldn't be attacked but should instead be allowed and even fostered, because it increases social welfare (the access to media is improved, while there is no significant damage to sales) and in many cases even helped law enforcement catch criminals who really do damage (and in this case: did very much damage).

Information about the impact of p2p-networks based on a study from the university of chicago: - http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JPE/journal/issues/v115n1/31618/31618.html [2] - http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/resolve?JPE31618PDF [3] (open twice to read)