It is quite possible that the cartels know precisely what they’re doing, that they’re doing it not out of malice directed at their random victims, but as a mercenary strategy to provoke legislators into ‘doing something’, e.g. “You said we should prosecute people if they infringe out copyright, and we have done so. If you’re now recanting on that to say that actually we can’t sue people for ignoring our monopoly either then perhaps you’d better compensate us with a tax instead, eh?”

That would explain why the victims they seek are precisely those that appear most innocent and most unable to afford any defence. All part of the great plan to tweak the masses and the politicians at their pressure points – with a big pay-off at the end. That should be clue enough that a tax is the fire underneath the frying pan. Don’t make a deal with the devil, cast him out. Take your liberty back that shouldn’t have been taken from you in the first place. The last thing you should do is to pay for it for the rest of your life.

When I read through his blog later on, he seemed unconcerned by his costar’s success, but he appeared to me to be distracted in the blog by minutiae– too much like Andy Rooney without the complaints.

Perhaps I read too much into it. With this post, and his recent appearance in V For Vendetta, he reassumes the mantle of a Man Who Has My Respect.