Maybe one of you guys can answer me this...
 

10-12 years ago there was a massive outcry over all the song sharing going on over the internet. The biggest player in the game, Napster, was sued to death and ultimately shut down, as well as several other file-sharing sites over the next several years. Some end-users (downloaders) were even prosecuted and fined as I recall.

Enter today. Smart phone users can 'touch phones' with another user and share songs and such instantly. And there are already millions upon millions of smart phone owners out there, their numbers growing daily. Companies are even using this feature of their phones, that songs can be shared instantly, as a selling point in their commercials. I heard one yesterday in fact.

So tell me, what's the difference between sharing songs amongst millions of smart phone users or doing it over the interwebs? Why is one thieveristically evil and wrong and bad, punishable with $1000 per song fines and up to two years imprisonment and the other is perfectly acceptable?

I'm not upset, I'm just asking a simple question. Anyone?

Back then all the songs shared were ripped from cds, there was no monetization path for the original rights owner.

Now, monetization is thru amazon and iTunes, so, the singles that are being shared have typically been paid for at least once.

And, the same boards of directors that own (thru share control) Samsung and apple also own the content sales companies.

So the same groups are profiting on both the hardware and content ends of the system.

disclaimer - I don't use smartphones, so I don't know what drm systems they might or might not be using on "loanable" content.

amazon requires that kindle book files of certain types be loanable, so they can be transferred from kindle to kindle, but various drm protocols still apply.