So, you finished your quarterly sales reports an hour ahead of schedule – congratulations, you’ve earned some downtime at the office, don’t you think? But what should you do? Certainly, you’ve heard so much lately about peer-to-peer networks (P2P), like Limewire and Kazaa, where you can download music, movies, and games, all with just a mouse-click. And thanks to your office’s high-speed Net connection, it won’t take long at all to download and install the software, and before you can say “copyright infringement,” you’re listening to the latest U2 album. And best part? It’s all for free.

But, of course, it’s not.

If there’s one rule you learn about the Internet, make it this one: If someone is offering you a online service for free, it really means they’re going to take away something much more valuable then your stack of dead presidents, namely, your time. And here’s why.

P2P software gives you amazing access to all manner of media, but what it’s really doing is choking your workstation with, at best, useless programs and, at worse, the digital version of Mad Cow Disease. And the reason is simple. Just like the rest of us, the companies that operate P2P networks have to make money and to do that, they contract out with third party vendors, so that every time you download P2P software, intent on getting a hacked copy of a game, you’re also downloading that third-party’s software as well, software that radically changes your experience of the Internet and, in most cases, severally violates your privacy. And the end result is plain. The next time you prep the quarterly sales reports, your computer is drowning in so much P2P adware, spyware, malware, and scumware that your Excel program can’t even autosum without you having to reboot. And that’s where that seemingly innocuous and free program is suddenly costing you time, because instead of an hour ahead of schedule, you’re a day behind.

So remember; the first rule of the Internet is that nothing – nothing – is ever free.

And the second rule? Don’t ever forget the first rule.