Andrew Dupont developed a Mac OSX widget that helps people who use the Azureus client to download content via Bittorrent. Although it has become popular, Apple won’t list it on its widget page. Andrew asked politely and got a polite reply from Apple [Note: in the comments, Dave Rogers points out that this quote comes from DashboardWidgest.com, although Apple apparently agrees with the sentiment. Thanks, Dave.]:

We decided early on that we did not want to promote piracy in any way, choosing to exclude widgets related to P2P, BitTorrent, etc. …[T]he main use (though usually unpublished) for BitTorrent is illegal downloading.

Talk about your chilling effects! This is how the Net is bifurcating: Chickenshit companies like Apple (and many many more) play it safe even when it comes to hugely valuable tech like Bittorrent, so the “mainstream” Internet has one set of protocols while another set is driven underground. We end up with a cultural and economic divide, with the lawyer-safe Internet on one side and the transformative Internet on the other. To use the transformative Net, you need tech skills, knowledge that it’s there, and a respite from the brainwashing that’s going on.