[george wythe]

They fought VHS tapes, they fought recordable cassettes, they worried about DAT, they worried about CD's at first, they were reluctant about going to DVD, they fight every new technology

History repeats itself.

Just in the last decade, I've seen the cat-n-mouse game played in the streets of Mexico City when the local cops busting vendors for selling copyrighted material.

The first time I visited Mexico City back in 1990, the street vendors were offering bootlegged copies of audio and video cassettes.

When I went back in 1997, they were selling bootlegged CDs. Then in 2000, both CDs and DVDS were available for sale with movies sometimes not even available on the US.

How did the movie and music industries survived the wholesale bootlegging?

Apparently, these execs don't realize that their Chicken Little predictions have previously failed to materialize.

[Arkinsaw]

How did the movie and music industries survived the wholesale bootlegging?

I've had the opportunity to purchase bootleg stuff. I never have because they were packaged like crap with low quality material and of generally poor quality.

If the entertainment industry were smart they would find a way to further differentiate their product from the bootleg products. They have to find a way to add value beyond the digital information itself.

They could provide premium items with the product that bootleggers could not provide. They could provide access to pre-release stuff that bootleggers could not provide. They could provide access to chats or special events online to legitimate users. I am sure that SOMEBODY in LA has a little creativity (well maybe not).

They have created an environment where it is COOL to download MP3 bootlegs and UNCOOL to purchase the real product. Kids today think of the music establishment as just that "the establishment". Its COOL to screw the old sourpuss, greedy, record execs and UNCOOL to buy from them. How smart is it for them to continue to play into that image by foaming at the mouth, suing, and screeching about their potential customers?

The problem of course is that such things are more costly than just churning out a million cheap CD's, selling them at a huge profit margin, and hiring lawyers. Such things actually require the music industry to establish a relationship with their customers and requires them to know who their customers are and what they want. Too expensive...too much trouble.....at least till they go out of business.