In what should be no surprise to anyone, the release candidate (RC) of Windows 7, build 7100, has leaked to P2P sites, including Miniova and yes, even The Pirate Bay, despite last Friday's guilty verdict in their copyright infringement case.

While just a day or so ago the founders of The Pirate Bay, Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde, expressed a great deal of confidence in their trial, but Friday a Swedish court found the three, as well as Carl Lundstrom, who provided financing, guilty of facilitating copyright infringement.

A petition filed by Internet scholars yesterday, asks the FCC to investigate allegations that Comcast violated principles of net neutrality, blocking P2P file sharing software.

Every day, more and more people join online communities, such as MySpace, FaceBook, and Second Life, and use file sharing systems like BitTorrent. In these virtual spaces they can reinvent themselves, make new friends, and share information and resources with others. Understanding how people give and receive digital gifts online is key to understanding the successes and failures of these communities.