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> [...] and piracy exists because of years and years of
> overinflated prices for crap media....

No, piracy exists because anything else means controlling a law of nature. It is a fundamental fact that information can be replicated with unboundedly low cost (or more exactly, the same piece of information be attached to any number of "carriers"), just like it is a law of nature that things fall down if you drop them. It takes a certain amount of effort to *prevent* this from happening.

DRM is like a building: By itself, the ceiling would fall down, but the walls prevent it from doing so. Likewise, information can by itself be copied, but DRM prevents this. Without walls/DRM, the natural thing happens, and as such has happened for all the time before DRM. And the same thing happens if the walls are torn down or if DRM is cracked.

- Morin

Correction, DRM exists because of piracy, and piracy exists because of years and years of overinflated prices for crap media....

DRM exists because the content makers want to take control of the content that they sold to the customer and charge the customer repeatedely for each view/listen of their product. DRM exists so those that want to implement it, can spy and restrict your freedom.

Piracy would exist even if the content was available $0.01. But that is not what is at issue here. Digitial Restrictive Management is a threat to your freedom to use computer hardware/software and electronic devices the way you want to use them.

Correction, DRM exists because of piracy, and piracy exists because of years and years of overinflated prices for crap media....

I think the biggest rip is the 'x number of dollars lost because of piracy' - which is assuming that if the pirated versions didn't exist, that people would still purchase the cd's that they would otherwised copied or downloaded.

You are definately correct about the cost of a cd; when I am down the road, the cheapest one can get a new release cd is NZ$25 - in NZ there are no tariffs or quotas on music cds, so there are no price distorters.

I'm sorry but I get paidd $370 cash in hand each week, $25 is a HUGE chunk out of my pay; with that being said, that doesn't mean I pirate my music, it just means that I am extra choosey with the music I may purchase; rather than risking purchasing a cd from a new artist, I'll simply stick to the old stuff of remakes like Ella Fitzgerald, and maybe after a while, purchase a new one, but all in all, I'm now less likely to purchase new release cds.

Now, I'm not saying that cd's need to be dirt cheap, but $15-18 per cd would be alot better for a new release, and plus, any margin lost would be made up in higher volume of sales - if it is cheap enough, people will say, "screw going to all that effort downloading, the cd is already cheap enough'.