Before I start this post proper, I’d like to point out that I don’t believe in steeling music or downloading stuff illegally. The musician deserves to be paid for their work as do the movie and software makers et al.
Unfortunately the copyright people and a certain Judge seem to be making themselves look like right arses, which is resulting in Pirate Bay becoming even more popular amongst the masses. I talk of course of the recent court case in Sweden between the founders of Pirate Bay and Swedish copyright orginisations. As you will probably have heard by now, the guys behind Pirate Bay were found guilty, given huge fines and sentenced to 12 months jail time. It then turns out, a few days after the case, that the Judge was a member of said Swedish copyright organisation and has been accused of bias. Not surprising really.
Come on! What did you expect? It doesn’t take a lot to see that coming. Judges are supposed to be unbiased and impartial. How could they hear this case in front of that judge and think it would acceptable? I sometimes wonder, I really do wonder what the world is coming to. If this is the measure of the copyright police I somehow don’t think that illegal filesharers have a lot to worry about. Their case seems to have been strengthened by their very enemy.
Arggg, Captain Jack wins again, says I 
I recently bought a Copy of “Now That’s What I Call Music! 72”. Which, if you haven’t heard of it, is a long-running, popular compilation of pop music. So long-running in fact it’s been around since 1983.
Until a few weeks ago I would have just downloaded it from Napster, but I cancelled my subscription because you pay forever and never really own any of the music you download. Every track is protected with DRM, so as soon as you stop paying you can no longer play the music. Ok, so there are ways around the DRM like this or this, but I don’t know if they are legal, so you may be well advised to steer clear of them.
Anyway, getting back to the tale… My initial though was to go and take a look at iTunes to pay for the download. I was a little taken aback when it found out that it costs £15.99 for the album. Next I decided to take a look at Amazon, which turned out to be a lot better at £11.98 for downloading the album but not so good when they are selling the CD for £10.78 with free delivery! Fortunately I decided to hold off buying it as on a trip to Morrisons, one of our local supermarkets, I found the very same album for only £10:00, so I bought it without hesitation.
I’ve never really questioned how economically beneficial it was to download music against buying the CD. I always assumed it would be cheaper to download as you don’t get the CD, jewel case or artwork. It seems that this was a totally wrong assumption to make. I find it quite amazing that it was actually cheaper to buy the CD rather then download the Mp3s. I can’t say if this is the same for every CD as I haven’t done much research, but it doesn’t make much sense. It seems you get less but pay more for it.
It all seems a bit screwed up to me. It seems that the music business has got a lot to learn about the public’s expectations when it comes to buying music on line.
Is it any surprise that illegal Mp3 downloads are so popular?
