Reason science writer Ron Bailey examines some recent experiments on human cooperation. His conclusion:

The moral of the story is that if you want to live in a world of caring generous cooperative people, make sure that you thoroughly thrash all the greedy, chiseling scoundrels you come across. It may cost you, but the world will be a better place.

Solveig likes to use "action interest vs constitutional interest"; I tend to say "Prisoner's Dilemma.". But both terms refer to the need for human societies to develop not just rules but informal codes of conduct that recognize people's long-term interest in creating stable systems of cooperation, as opposed to short-term efforts to game the system.

The context, of course, is the current dispute over P2P, and the fact that it presents precisely this kind of conflict between short-term and long-term interest. I am cheered to know that we should keep on trashing the greedy chiseling scoundrels, since we absolutlely intend to do so.