One of the recurring issues besetting Web 2.0 is the piracy of ideas and content. This is not about fake DVDs being sold on the streets of developing countries, but it is as much a reality in the Web as much as in different countries. 

Intellectual property rights is a big issue that users of Web 2.0 has to deal with. In the United States, particularly, the government has a bent on cracking down against people who inadvertently download content from peer-to-peer protocols. As the case filed against TorrentSpy shows, the government may even direct a company to provide the IP addresses of the people who download such things from the net illegally.

On the other hand, where do you draw the line between responsible and fair use and prosecuting people who download from P2P? Is this merely a matter of protecting the interests of the artists or do law enforcers have a tendency to favor big companies? 

A lot of Web 2.0 users and consumers are aware of the need to compensate authors and artists for the creative work that they do. This has been demonstrated in the case of iTunes. In fact, consumers sometimes feel that the big recording companies are not giving enough to the artists and that is one reason why they try to get copies for free.

As Web 2.0 further develops, we may see artists being able to promote their stuff more directly to audiences and consumers worldwide

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