@jackdyne


It sounds like fuzzy maths to me! What's driving people away from buying CDs are the high prices, not people sharing the music, the reason people share music and get music from sharing is that they can't afford the high prices for CDs.

The Word is Out My Friends!

Kind Regards,

The Magic Monkey!

@JD is absolutely correct; if you don't buy something that you feel is over priced, and your friends and neighbors don't buy it for the same reason, then eventually the price either comes down, or the company goes away..
Protest unfair pricing by boycotting those items; by "stealing" them, you just give support to the corporations complaints about why they HAVE to charge so much, to make up profits they lose by people "sharing" products..

Profits profits profits, that’s all we hear about.

I would like to boycott and also listen to the music @ the same time, I shouldn’t be denied the right to listen to my favourite music for free and also @ the same time boycott enormously priced CDs by not buying them. Listening to radio is not selective enough for me; neither is buying a CD with songs I don’t want on it. Being able to access music @ the touch of a finger tip is the way information sharing ought to be, being naturally selective is the way to go for music.

Also for the record, I’ll protest & boycott how I see fit.

The nature of Monkey was Irrepressible

@Dudelive - You are some what right as to the nature of the game but what ever happened to ethical standards or the morals intertwined with producing a product that derives its value not only from the utility that the end user gets; but also from the satisfaction that the supplier derives from providing that product at a reasonable price. I would not be gouging my customers while in the middle of this musical rebellion/revolution, but appeasing them with better prices. And yes, if that means getting rid of fancy lables and pretty covers that is fine with me...and hopefully all file sharers who never geta nice jewel case or the notes in the CD's, or the cool label on the disc realize that those things don't matter as much as the music itself.

As for the quality of the music, I don't think it will be any worse than the MP3's we are downloading. The same quality of music we have today was recorded in the 1950's when Elvis did his first recordings. Studios don't have to be totally state of the art to produce great music (I know as a close friend owns his own studio and independent label, which I helped to build). And as for as the cost of manufacturing CD's is concerned, AOL distributes millionsof FREE CD's with thier software on them, could they really cost that much to produce? - I doubt it.

@JackDynne - You are also very right, the market is the motivating force here and we are perpetuating the problem bu paying too much for these CD's. Regardless of how they got to be priced so high is really irrelevant, it is what we can do to lower the price that is important. And as the law of supply and demand will show, the market will determine the acceptable price of a product based upon the market's willingness to purchase said product at any guven price. Unfortunately inthe rocky times we have had, the proce elasticity of CD's is relatively high (people buy CD's when priced at varying levels, both high and low) and so as long as we keep paying the high prices, they will keep selling them for that. I want the music and I WILL pay for it AS WE ALL SHOULD, but only so long as it is reasonably priced. You would not pay $10.00 for a cheeseburger, why pay too much for music. Just like any other product, it gives 4 kinds of basic utility:

Time Utility: It is there WHEN you want it.

Place Utility: It is available at the PLACE you need it

Price Utility: It is priced so you can AFFORD it.

Transferability Utility: You can transfer it at YOUR OWN WILL

Forget these DRM issues, they are pa product of corporate greed! I say this despite my assertion that most business (including most big ones) are moral, ethical, socially responsible entities that serve us well; but not the music industry.

Let's prove these ignorant, aged fools wrong! I am not going to pay for thier trophy wives and luxuury automobiles anymore! I will not tollerate overinflated prices for already substandard music! I will pay what I demand for a product I like! The customer is (almost) always right! We should unite as customers and show them that they are wrong, and to attack us in the name of thier own protection is blasphemy and thier greed and control issues are thier own and will drive us away in perpetuity!

Thank you BetaONE for giving me the opportunity to rant.

With all respect,

Sigma Zeta 314
MBA Candidate - Fall 2004
Texas Wesleyan University

PS- Props to Professor Norwood for the insight into Utility.

sigmazeta314 With all that you said, I agree totally and in my previous post I was not trying to take sides with the companies as it may have seemed, only post in my opinion their way of looking at the situtation...well it sure seems as that is the way they look at it.

Now I am almost going to show my age here........This thing of swapping music or "stealing" as some might say is NOT new stuff here. The only things NEW are the BIG company lawyers. You mean to tell me that when there were LP albums and people traded or loaned them to their friends 40+ years ago copies were not made of the music on the album? If copies were not made then what were the reel to reel tape recorders used for and what did they sell 8 track recorders for, so you could listen to speeches that you made for yourself? Also please don't forget that all sorts of companies sold cassette recorders for CHILDREN to play with and....you guessed it...record things. So when it gets down to real facts here who really is guilty or at fault. Now I have NOT said that stealing is right because it is not. I also remember when musicians did not make more money in comparison to others, there were no big busses or large corporations started to sort out all the dividends.

As you can see this is NOTHING new, it has just became another way for someone to b*tch, gripe and complain and then get themselves in the spotlight for awhile.....Oh yeah and make more money.

Changing subjects here will tell you what ever happened to ethical standards or the morals intertwined with producing a product that derives its value not only from the utility that the end user gets; but also from the satisfaction that the supplier derives from providing that product at a reasonable price.
Remember when Walmart got started the slogan was sorta like this "Made in America, by Americans, for Americans" ? Now I am NOT trying to get anyone here all up in the air, I am using that as an example of the way it was then, but go in the stores and look now. Morals and ethical standards will almost always get tossed for the right buck.

Thanks
Dudelive

Don't forget these post are a result of HP's stand, as was stated in the first post.

I think you are getting copyright infringment mixed up with theft. Copying != Stealing, that is just a false claim perpetuated by the recording industries in an attempt to associate P2P networks with a much more serious crime.

I read about this a few days myself. (btw, workaround: Open the file in illustrator, and click import to photoshop). I'd certainly like to have a discussion with the guys who decided to implement such a measure. I can't see what the reasoning was behind it - "I'm sure this will stop the counterfeiters, who won't be smart enough to use an older version of our products"?.

When opening the image of a banknote, Adobe provides a link to a page, informing the user of guidelines for LEGALLY reproducing currency. For example, making the image 50% smaller or 150% larger, or overwriting parts with the text "SPECIMEN". Unfortunatly, users are not able to implement the required distortions because their image editing software turns against them! It's this principal which is important - I expect Photoshop CS to be an image editing tool, nothing more, nothing less - I do not believe that software should be making moral decisions on my behalf.

correct and nicely said Zone-MR