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I, for one would much rather contend with the entertainment industry than oppressive and counterproductive regulations produced by the one sector of society that's never proven their ability to product anything EXCEPT regulations.

Yes, company stupidity is less vile than government stupidy.

But the fact of the matter is that company’s should realize that the very small percentage of people who would pirate rather than buy are best just written off.

Sacrificing the good will of regular customers to stop a few thieves is not good business. I have 1600+ CDs, but I will not buy another until I can be assured that it is a “real CD”. And if some company slips one of these "protected" ones by me, I will not buy another product from them ever.

I didn't say stupidity on the part of the producers was good. I was trying to make two points: First, if we criticize them for whining to the goverment instead of trying to protect themselves, we give up the right to complain when they try to protect themselves. Second, if anti-piracy measures are in place, I prefer my legal position if I try to defeat commercial measures implemented by the industry, rather than criminal penalties from Big Brother.

Also, if the standards are implemented by the industry with something to protect, it is less likely to leak into other media, as would be mandated by the Hollings bill, thus insuring more problems for me and my computer than the industry way.

That having been said, I have no disagreement with you that this is a bad move from a marketing standpoint.

Here's my gripe with it. I don't listen to most American pop music for obvious reasons. I do however listen to Latin, Brasilian and general Spanish music which is both innovative and excellent. Most of these CD's are excruciatingly difficult to get a hold of, special orders, mostly, or obtained while overseas. They are precious to me. So in interest of preserving my investments, I archive, archive and archive. Try finding all three versions of Lenny Andrade's "Onda" some time. Once you find it it's worth the price of gold.

When I convert my music for archives, I use the MP3 format. These I can upload to a portable player that I hook into my car's cassette player via the same thing they use for portable CD players. I get digitable quality music with less than a $100.00 investment. I change the tracks every week for my variety. The rest of the time I listen to AM talk radio.

If they manufacture a CD that doesn't conform to my pattern of usage, it does me no good. Also forget about investing $20 in a CD that my kid might decide to eat or use for skeet shooting next week. I won't do it.