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A new report (PDF) from Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Free Press and US PIRG discusses the benefits of online music distribution to consumers, how peer-to-peer (P2P) communication technology can be used for political speech, and demonstrates how the music industry’s "anticompetitive" practices in the late 1990s encouraged consumers to download music from services like Napster, KaZaA, Audiogalaxy, and more.

The report comes less than a week before the Supreme Court hears MGM v. Grokster, a case that will decide whether P2P software companies are liable if users trade copyrighted music and movies. 

For more information about peer-to-peer file sharing and the Grokster case, read What’s at Stake: File Sharing.