[steve-b]

If something is not done to control piracy, we are going to be missing out on a huge economic windfall.

This claim is constantly made to support the xxAA's agenda, but the evidence simply does not support it. Certainly, the industry's revenues remain high, despite the recession (and despite their use of Enronomics to understate their income and thereby chisel on various percentage-based payments).

A few years ago I bought a DVD player and big screen TV, thinking that I would never go back to a theatre, but each month when I look over the DVD releases, I see nothing but junk. The studios are afraid to release their really good work for fear that someone will copy it.

Leaving aside the dubious claim that anything out of Hollywood these days constitutes "really good work", how many major motion pictures can you name that are not released on video within a few years of theatrical debuts?

[discostu]

Actually the evidence is there, the RIAA is loosing money hand over fist which they weren't doing before all this MP3 stuff hit (something the anti-RIAA people cheer vociferously). The MPAA's margins are down but their still profitable (and will probably stay that way, even at cable modem speeds a movie is one serious download and sucks a lot of harddrive).

And of course if even they weren't losing money over this stuff it's still theft.