The Internet under its original design built a platform that induced lots of innovation in applications and content. And it did this by embracing an end-to-end principle, which meant that the network would remain as simple as possible and push all of the intelligence and, therefore, innovation to the end. This is the vision that is now enabled by a peer-to-peer architecture, and its the environment that has inspired the greatest amount of innovation around the Internet in its history. Now this architecture threatens existing interests, business interests and Hollywood interests, and in response to that threat there have been a number of changes that have occurred in both the technical and legal environment, aiming to undermine this platform for innovation, aiming to change it into a platform where its easier for certain interests to exercise control over innovation on that platform.
http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2001/08/07/lessig.html
