I don’t buy music cd’s anymore. Primarily due to the greed of the industry and their strong arm approach to file sharing. I’d be a liar if I said I never ripped music. What is the difference from copying it off the radio or copying a file? Same quality, same music? Never understood that one. I also see the need for the artists’ to make a buck. What I don’t get is the flat grab for cash that the RIAA has made to prevent online sharing. Their tactics are shameful at best. Beating up your consumer base does nothing to encourage them to buy your product. Duh! To date, illegal file sharing has only made the smallest dent in the music industry’s sales. All their fake studies have fallen by the wayside.
Being a huge movie fan, I’ve been fearful the movie industry would go the same route. This article from Wired mag gives me hope that maybe, just maybe the movie industry isn’t as anxious to squash their only source of income.
“We’re going to bypass what the music industry had to come up with, and that’s to get ahead of the whole piracy thing,” Freeman told reporters at Sun Valley. (full story)
Apparently, Morgan Freeman has joined forces w/some big logos in attempt to make online movie sharing easy. Time will tell I guess but w/more forward thinking and less backward thinking, I think we’ll find a middle ground that is acceptable to all involved.
I’m with you Moby. I’ve stopped buying new CDs because of the greed and arrogance of the record companies (not to mention they’re just putting out trash, and still they wonder WHY no one’s buying it). The last new CD I bought had those hideous anti-piracy warnings plastered all over it to such degree they didn’t even bother printing the track listing ON the CD because there wasn’t room. That CD came with a feedback card, so I filled it in and told them I would not be purchasing another piece of their product until they pulled their heads out of their asses. I *do* frequent used record and CD stores, however–and the record companies get SQUAT from those sales!