For anyone with self-respect, it is. Come get me, media-conglomerate scumbags.
Remember how they whined against DAT and basically had it killed (abetted by Congress), claiming that "perfect digital copies" would destroy their business? Meanwhile, everybody on the planet knew that essentially all "piracy" took place on double-cassette boom boxes in dorm rooms.
And sure enough, even when "piracy" went digital, it was in the form of lossy MP3s... far from perfect. So their story was a lie from top to bottom... but we've seen our "representatives" abet ever-greater crimes against consumers at their behest. The absurd tax on blank media, and the DMCA (and even more-egregious proposals since) stand as disgraceful examples.
Do you remember when Circuit City or Best Buy offered "every CD $10.99 or less?" The idea was to bring people into their stores, where they'd buy other stuff. But all of a sudden that deal disappeared. It turns out that the record companies threatened those retailers with financial sanctions (by withholding cooperative advertising funds) if they continued to offer those prices.
The record companies were sued for this behavior, which prosecutors said ripped off consumers for $400 million. Gee, this is the same figure that the record companies whined that Napster cost them. Karma is a bitch.
I still have the stub of my $13 settlement check from these assholes.
Remember how they whined against DAT and basically had it killed (abetted by Congress), claiming that "perfect digital copies" would destroy their business? Meanwhile, everybody on the planet knew that essentially all "piracy" took place on double-cassette boom boxes in dorm rooms.
And sure enough, even when "piracy" went digital, it was in the form of lossy MP3s... far from perfect. So their story was a lie from top to bottom... but we've seen our "representatives" abet ever-greater crimes against consumers at their behest. The absurd tax on blank media, and the DMCA (and even more-egregious proposals since) stand as disgraceful examples.
Do you remember when Circuit City or Best Buy offered "every CD $10.99 or less?" The idea was to bring people into their stores, where they'd buy other stuff. But all of a sudden that deal disappeared. It turns out that the record companies threatened those retailers with financial sanctions (by withholding cooperative advertising funds) if they continued to offer those prices.
The record companies were sued for this behavior, which prosecutors said ripped off consumers for $400 million. Gee, this is the same figure that the record companies whined that Napster cost them. Karma is a bitch.
I still have the stub of my $13 settlement check from these assholes.