Now you're scaring me, you're sounding like Brent!:shocking:
Well, I do try to do the right thing....here's some of my "take" on the "download" topic:
Music:
I don't believe downloading music free should be a crime. This is because back in the day, before technology, if you wanted music, you learned to play or you hired musicians (think louis the 15th era)
Then along came technology that allowed musicians to play once, and get paid repeatedly for that one performance
Then along came technology that allowed people to obtain these recordings free
So we're back to the beginning where if they want to be paid for every performance, they don't put their product in a format that can be distributed free
I don't download first run movies or buy those cheap knockoffs at the flea market. For one, I think studios deserve to be paid for their efforts. Plus most of the ones I've seen are crap recordings.....
Now if a movie has been released on dvd, then by all means have at it. For one, they again made the mistake of putting their product onto a format that can be distributed freely. OOPS and secondly, instead of bringing the price down to a point where everyone can buy it legally, they destroy copies or limit release to keep the price high. Tsk tsk IMO....
Ebooks: I believe an author and publisher deserve to be paid for their efforts. Since actually printing and distributing a hard copy of a book is very expensive, I somewhat agree with the price of a hardcopy. BUT, the cost to distribute an e copy is negigable at best. I mean, how much does it cost to send an email? Even one with 10,000 words? maybe 1/100th of a cent......
Once again, if they priced it reasonably so that everyone who wanted to read it, could afford to, they'd probably end up making more money than they are now......that's the mass merchandising concept...price something so low, instead of making $5.00 per unit, and selling 10,000 units you make $1.00 per unit and sell 1,000,000 units....what's more? $50,000.00 or $1,000,000.00?
I forget the numbers but I think Lady GaGa used that concept. The first day of an album release she set the price at $1.00 or something...sold 10,000 the first day....or something like that.....
One more prop to GaGa, Howard Stern asked her during an interview that it must bother her that nowadays, that so many people are downloading her songs for free.....her answer? More power to them, I have enough money.......BIG BIG props for that answer....
