How true. Unfortunately the entertainment industry is laboring under a number of false assumptions. Their biggest mistake is believing that each download equals a lost sale. Sooner or later they are going to have to accept the fact there is absolutely no way to achieve the kind of control they seek. Even if the internet didn’t exist people would still share, just as they did before it came along.

I’m sure the industry would love to find a way to collect a per person fee each and every time a song is listened to or a TV show or movie is watched. Obviously (to us at least) that is completely unreasonable, not to mention utterly insane. They have their heads in the clouds. Their financial greed and lust for absolute control is blinding the entertainment industry, and it will be the death of them in the end.

Technology continually changes and most of the time the goal is the betterment of all mankind. Companies are duty bound to adapt their business strategy to take advantage of new and emerging technologies, not subvert them. It’s becoming clear what will happen when they refuse to accept the fact that they have an obligation to not only their shareholders, but their customers as well. Without customers there is no business.

I suppose it’s possible that in the case of the music industry they’ve realized the internet has made the middle man obsolete and are attempting to drag things out for as long as possible before their century-old empire inevitably collapses. If they cannot or will not find a new business model that embraces the freedom of the internet, then perhaps they deserve to die. After all they’ve leeched off of the hard work and creativity of artists for far too long as it is.

I am a reasonable person, and I have absolutely no qualms at all about donating what I feel is a reasonable fee directly to the artist for works of theirs I like. I do not think I should be punished for sampling an artists work. If I do not like something, I do not pay and the work is deleted from my PC. The times of being forced to pay for garbage (ie: no refunds) have ended, and this can’t be anything but good for the consumer. In the end it is history that will show who was right and who was wrong.

@Rekrul: If they chose to do as you’re suggesting, they would most likely use bittorrent or similar means of distribution to vastly reduce their own bandwidth costs in order to maximize profits. While legal, I doubt such a service would be anywhere near as popular as sites like The Pirate Bay and others are, meaning even fewer seeders and peers to leech from than you’re seeing right now. On top of that you have all the ISP’s out there currently throttling the heck out of not just yours but everybody’s bandwidth. Put all together I’d say you would likely be even worse off than you already are.