Dave Slusher has an excellent article detailing just what is at stake in the case of MGM v. Grokster. He says:

I am the benificiary of being able to serve my podcasts to an order of magnitude more users than I could without it.

Without the technological innovation of P2P networks, Dave would be unable to reach the huge numbers of individuals that he currently does: it simply wouldn’t be cost effective. A reversal of the Sony decision would allow the creators of Bittorrent or similar programs to be held liable for piracy created by their sharing technology, and we would be back in a world where media is controlled by the few who can afford the higher costs associated with the classic means of distribution.