You know, I wrote this big, stupid rant (which is after the jump if you really want to read it) but let me cut to the quick: The music industry just took your lunch money, and now they want you to pay them to do it again.
I feel like I should mention this even though it sets my blood boiling, just so everyone knows how much the music industry hates us: Macrovision and SunComm (the people who made the CD copy-restriction that could be defeated by a Sharpie) are developing a new system that would limit the amount of copies you could make of the CDs you purchased (and as TechDirt points out, it’s really not fair to call these CDs anymore — unless CD stands for ‘Content Delivery’) . Obviously they can’t restrict the number of times the CD is read (hopefully!), so it’s obvious that additional software and/or hardware systems will have to be set in place for something like this to work, which will certainly add to the price of any CD burner and PC. So not only are the record companies spending more money to keep you from using your music the way you want (making CDs more expensive), they want you to pay even more money to opt into their system that takes away your rights.
But yeah, yeah, I’m righteously indignant and everything, but for real, this is why some people have stopped buying music entirely. There’s an ethical dissonance between trying to support the artists you like and the industry you hate (and who hates you). But you know this.
