From Irene McC Sent Fri, Apr 16th 1999, 13:36
From Irene McC Sent Fri, Apr 16th 1999, 13:36
On 15 Apr 99, . wrote re: RE: (idm) warp/mp3 and burglarizin': > I think that if Cd prices go up too much more, that MP3 piracy will > also rise. The best way for record labels to combat MP3s is to > LOWER prices, not raise prices. The lower the price of a retail CD, > the more likely people will buy the CD instead of downloading an > MP3. Hear, hear. The fact is, the technology is here. Manufacturing CD's must be dirt-cheap, judging by the amounts of 'free' CD's stuck onto the covers of magazines etc. The marketing boys are just VERY greedily creaming off cash at each crank of the wheel. I'm not promoting flagrant piracy, nor do I propagate making money off illegal copies, but personally I see no major harm in exchanging CD-R's within a circle of friends, of whom somebody somewhere has to buy the original from which to make the copy in the first place. I have an arrangement with a friend whose taste overlaps with mine, and in order to minimise doubling up on what we buy, we discuss new releases and he'll buy this, I'll buy that - then we swop and exchange. We are still BUYING new products each month. I am too much of an anti-luddite and am too cynical to uphold a strict sense of ethics in this rather unethical business that makes major money from music obsessives. I *