Piracy - impossible to stop
No matter what laws are passed or what Digital Rights Management systems are put in place, there is no way to stop someone putting a microphone (connected to a recorder) in front of a speaker or putting a camcorder infront of a TV screen and making illegal copies. All these laws and DRM systems do is make it less convenient to copy. I must admit that when I was a teenager, I used to record radio programs onto reel-to-reel tape. However, the main reason for this was that I simply could not afford to buy recordings (dad bought the tape recorder), so even if I had been prohibited from making those illegal recordings, the artists/record companies would not have benefited in the slightest. As it was, I got to like certain types of music which meant I bought more records subsequently when I was earning than I might otherwise have done. Moreover, when the changeover from LPs to CDs came (why do people refer to LPs as 'vinyl' but not to CDs as 'carbonate'?), I rebought my favourite recordings on CD, thus paying twice for the same material. This is the flip side of piracy, yet I haven't seen any moves by the recording industry to enable re-buyers of recordings in a different medium to purchase at a significant discount. If the big boys are losing money, then legislation must be brought toi bear. If the little men are losing money, the recording industry doesn't care one iota. By recording industry, I include companies making recordings of both/either audio and video recording in any medium.
