Who are the Pirates?

All I have to say about the recording industry is this:

When Compact Discs first made their appearance in the 80's, we were promised that they'd be cheaper than the LPs and tapes we were buying.

I remember buying currently released albums on cassette for $CDN6.99 (less than $US5) in the late 80's. Compact Discs, which were cheaper to produce (no moving parts like cassettes, no vinyl pressings) cost $CDN14.00 ($CDN 20+ if you were buying something out of the back catalogue), but were pushed as premium products because of the sound quality.

Because there were limited numbers of producers, there was no competition to push the prices down. Now the same companies are insisting that we pay them AGAIN for music we've already bought and paid for (some of us already MORE than once.)

While I think that downloading something you've never owned before is wrong, the fact that there is an assumption of guilt (to the point that they think they have the RIGHT to search individuals private computers) just for having MP3s on your hard disk shows what the recording industry thinks of us. Backing up our collections IS a legitimate activity despite their efforts to reach into my wallet yet again.

To them, customers are pigeons revenue streams to be collected from again and again and again.

By acting high-handed and not thinking out a logical business model they are just as responsible for the "problem" as the people who used Napster and still use Kazaa.