The internet was celebrating an unexpected outburst of common sense over the weekend. A Los Angeles district court judge, Stephen Wilson, ruled that companies making software enabling users to swap music and film files over the internet are not doing anything illegal. The people who swap those files, he argued, may be involved in illegal activity but the company providing the software should not be held any more responsible than the manufacturers of video machines are for all the copying they spawn.

This judgment draws a line between the first swathe of "peer-to-peer" companies like Napster, which kept a central index of swappable films and music files (thereby becoming a central part of the operation) and the current outcrops like Grokster, StreamCast and Kazaa which merely provide enabling software that can be used, like so many other products, for legal and illegal transactions. No one sues the roads because criminals use them or Hotmail or Yahoo because they deliver spam mail. Don't shoot the medium just because it is the messenger.

No one denies that the music and film industries have a big problem over the ease with which their products can be swapped over the web. Millions of people are doing it every week. But the correct reaction is not to adopt a Luddite attitude but to use the new technology by offering their own music and films for downloading at prices reflecting the cheapness of transmission that the web affords. There are encouraging signs that companies like EMI are starting to do this and Apple, the computer manufacturer, is negotiating with the music giants over paid-for downloads to MP3 digital music players like Apple's iPod. The music industry will, doubtless, appeal against this judgment. It would be far better off spending the same effort embracing the new technology rather than fruitlessly trying to snuff it out.