...of course, its legal up here....
So was decrypting of Direct TV signals until about a year ago. That is another subject where people have been sued.
Direct TV was sucessfully sueing people for 18 months until a few "die hards" decide to really fight them about the equipment that they owned. Now it seems that DTV is now getting their collective butts handed to them because of it. Seems that more and more judges are saying that the "equipment" that they own is not just for "stealing" Satelite signals but can be and is used for other "smartcard" applications. Heck, MicroSoft sells the reader/writers on their website.
Anyway, that one of the other things that is going on also with "illegal" activities..
LOL
I think that the pricing of the software and music has alot to do with why people "share" what they have. I mean, look at some of the graphics programs out there. You need to take a second mortgage out just to buy it, them 6 months later they release another version and the stuff is no longer compatitable with the previous version, so you have to buy it again. (Well not all are like that...I just got a little carried away) Of course you get to buy the upgrade at only half the cost....
LOL
As for music, the way I look at it is this:
It cost to physically produce the CD (with packaging) about 60 cents when done on a mass production level. You pay 10 to 18 dollars for a music CD. Alot of money is going somewhere. I seen a breakdown once of where it went based on percentage but I can't find it. I do know the Artist does not get the money everyone thinks they do. They make a small % of the Royalties but are paid up front by the recording studio/producer or what ever. Still, someone is making a ton of money for a simple item of very little cost material wise. Someone once told me, (this someone was and is actively downloading music illegally) "You spend all that money for a CD and the idiots just spend it on drugs, guns, cars and houses. Then they kill themselves (suicide) or die from a drug overdose or shot. By not buying the music I can still listen to it and not contribute to their death."
Although I don't agree with him on most of this, some of it does hold true. Yes I think pricing has alot to do with it....
LOL
Lets really get this discussion going. I would like to hear what everyone else feels on this subject. I remember when I used to "copy" records (you know, those little round plastic circles that you put on a machine that had this needle on it...) to cassette tapes for my car, and I would occasionally give one to my friend or relative. Same thing. But no one made a big thing about it, same with the old VCR. Sure you could not really exchange them on the internet then, but you could still exchange them. It was still not legal. Corporations were not losing alot of money on that kind of stuff back then, they are now. It's all about the money. Which brings me back to they charge too much..
LOL
There are just too many people getting their "cut" in everything that is done anymore to make anything cheap. I am not saying that the people who do the work to make, and (or) develope the music, video, and software should not be paid, but all the people in "chain" that don't do squat are also getting paid and alot of times more than the "creator/artist".
Now ask me how I feel about drug dealers? and what to do with them?...
Better yet, don't ask...
LOL
Mike