Randy, Hillside, NJ: The day that J.Lo stops buying her $12 million jewels, and has to fight to live paycheck to paycheck like the rest of us, I will respect her. Celebrities taunt us with their multimillion dollar decadent lifestyles, while the great majority of Americans are living well below a comfortable standard of living. Yes, I do download music. Why? Because I don't think that I should pay for someone else’s lavish lifestyle. The day that Brittney Spears works eight hours like I do to make $10 an hour and has to worry about feeding her baby and paying the mortgage, I will stop.
Anonymous: I have worked 21 years as a journeyman union stagehand, mostly live concert venues. It sickens me to see the top-heavy pay structure in the music industry, while guys like myself risk our lives and work endless hours for miniscule pay. I take whatever music I want. I won't pay the overblown CD prices to make the bloated fat-cat pigs richer.
Joe, Everett, WA: The simple solution to the problem would be lower prices which, when translated into lower profits, is unacceptable to the Hollywood fat cats. They can't justify their zeal for "protecting" artists’ income when all they actually pay the artists is a pittance. Part of the huge money Hollywood generates goes straight to the pockets of politicians who then pass all kinds of bills to protect their own source of income, always under cover of artists' rights. I hope the general public will be wise enough to see what is really going on and act accordingly.
Greg, Oregon: The media companies are on a slippery path downhill if they stay the course. They are spending tons of money trying to protect their content. This cost is being passed onto consumers. As prices rise on content, more and more consumers are going to be pushed out of the legal market for media content and into the illegal market. There is no way that I would pay $5 for a hacked CD if I can get a legit one for $6. However, if you were to change the equation and say I have to pay $15 for a legit CD vs. $5 for a hacked one then my decision may not be as easy.

What you say may be a practical consideration for media companies when they think about pricing, but it’s not a very ethical argument for consumers to advance. If you think a Lexus GS is priced too high, that doesn’t make it right to buy a stolen one for less.

Matt Dotseth, San Diego, CA: Listen, as a technology professional, I have to disagree with the majority of your article. It is IMPOSSIBLE to stop digital piracy. As long as music comes out of your speakers, and a video signal is displayed on your screen, there is ALWAYS a way to make a copy of anything. The industry needs to shift their focus from "Protect the intellectual property" to "If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em" and find a way to peacefully co-exist with today's technology. The fact of the matter is there is nothing that can stop digital piracy, short of shutting down all computer networks. That is the plain, awful truth, and it’s high time that reporters like yourself are privy to the facts, not the RIAA and MPAA rundown. They simply have got no clue.

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Oh, I think the RIAA and MPAA have plenty of clues, and I think they would agree that stopping all piracy is impossible. In the end they simply want to make piracy far more difficult and painful than legal purchases — as the following note reflects.

TG, Moore, SC: I would like to comment on your rhetorical question "How does any business model compete against free?” As anybody who ever tried to download movies from the Web can tell you, this is an enterprise that usually takes many hours, even some days. There is no assurance that what you get in the end is what you were looking for (you might get another movie or just a block of a file, or something nastier like a virus). But let's suppose you are lucky. First, as far as quality is concerned (not to consider packaging) we are way off from DVD standards. Your download (e.g. a DivX file) usually requires special arrangements to run on your TV set. I'll skip the rest except to say that you need more than average technical know-how, plenty of free time and even so you have no guarantee of success.

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