At 12:14 PM 6/5/01 -0700 Kristin A. Ruhle wrote:
>Please pass this on. When copy protected discs hit the stores DON'T BUY
>THEM. Tell the record companies this whole thing absolutely sucks and we
>want our fair use back! As for piracy: yeah, it's a long term thing but
>the only way to stop piracy is to teach better ethics in schools. Most
>people who download so called pirate MP3s do not consider it stealing -
>this tells me we need to change the way we educate our young.
Actually, I do cosider it stealing - and do it anyway.*
The sound recording industry acts as a monopoly, and as such, has been
using their monopoly powers to reduce the overall level of utility in the
economy. According to free-market economics, however, monopoly abuses
will create a black market that will effectively reduce the average price.
In this case, I am responding to the monopoly power of the music industry
by engaging in the black market. If the music time would like to sell me
my MP3's, however, I will happily pay up. Until then, I have absolutely
no sympathy for their attempts to keep prices high by bundling music in
combinations that I do not want, and only selling them with expensive
packaging that I also do not want.
JDG
* - Please do not pass this message onto your friends, or other mailing
lists until 1 August 2001. Thank you.
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"Compassionate conservatism is the way to reconcile the two most vital
conservative intellectual traditions: libertarianism & Catholic social
thought."
-Michael Gerson, advisor to George W. Bush
