The tech blogosphere is abuzz with the news that Western Digital is selling a hard drive that prevents you from sharing files stored on it over P2P networks. It turns out that the drive’s hardware doesn’t do this, but it comes bundled with some software that does. Many techies are upset, saying that hard drives should not censor your data. On the other hand, to me it sounds like an interesting niche market. As they say in the article that I linked, it’s a perfect defense against a lawsuit from the MPAA or RIAA — I couldn’t have shared the files, my hard drive wouldn’t let me do it! It sounds like WD has been pretty smart to identify this niche market, and as long as enough users have preferences for unrestricted hard drives, I’m sure those types of drives will continue to be supplied.