Memo to access providers: much of P2P is legit. Get used to it!

We’ve long held the belief that the duopoly’s problem with P2P has never been about taking the moral high road and protecting copyright holders. Rather it’s been about constraining the use of bandwidth with copyright infringement a paper tiger. With the explosive growth of legit P2P, we’re bettting the tune they are singning will have to change:

A number of startups are embracing so-called peer-to-peer technology and have convinced some big-name media companies to use them to deliver legal content.

“In 2005 when we met with content owners, ‘peer-to-peer’ was a dirty word,” said Robert Levitan, chief executive of file-sharing company Pando Networks Inc. “In 2007, finally, content owners came and said ‘Yeah, we think there’s a role for P2P.’”

Levitan was speaking Friday at the first “P2P Market Conference” of the Distributed Computing Industry Association, a trade group with more than 100 members.

Pando is prime example of mainstream acceptance: It’s providing the means for NBC to provide DVD-quality downloads of its shows, including “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno. (Yahoo News)