Defenders of traditional copyright law might have the law on their side in the battle against file-swapping and free music, but that won’t be enough to win what is basically a Quixotic war of principle being fought against simple progress, says Joshua Ostroff. The latest battle has seen courts ruling that “sampling” of other artists’ work is illegal, an absurd notion that has done nothing to stop the widespread practice. Such crackdowns might temporarily set back the advance of new media practices, but audio enthusiasts are firmly convinced that nothing can be done to stop the changes already in motion in the music industry.