Life is Healthy

As I write this, there is currently a trail going on against the runners of PIRATEBAY; a peer to peer sharing site.
Claiming that they willfully and knowingly distribute pirate material.

I recall when the BBS's were around and it happened then - the fact is now its quicker, easier and there is far more access to the material that the people want.

Should you buy it or pay for it - YES! But thats only one option. The fact that SO many people pirate and we are talking about kids to sweet little old ladies all around the world, means the demand is there.

There is many arguments against of course, but consider if you will the fact that people want readily available access to material - whether it be music / films / games or data.
So why not give it to them in a manner that can be controlled better.
iTunes has attempted to do this, others could follow suit.
I have bought MANY films and a lot music - but to be honest feel cheated that everytime a new format is developed that I have to invest the full price yet again, even though I shown the loyalty and gave them the means of which to afford to develop the future media to screw me over again.

As a child for music I bought records, tapes, then cd's and as for movies I bought VHS cassettes, DVD's and now you expect us to buy Blueray's. again you could argue that we have a choice but to be honest we dont! You simply stop producing the material in all available formats, ergo forcing the consumer to upgrade! (BETAMAX and HD are just two formats that were scrapped with no concern for the consumer) To be honest WE should be holding the film companies and distributors accountable, as they promised with the DVD format would come, multi-language and multi-angle films - REALLY, name 10, I bet you cant!
The companies LIED and CHEATED US, so if they have no loyality to the consumer, why should we?

We want MP3's, we want Xvid's so give us it - afterall 'you' have developed the technology to play it all, so why hold us responsible for using it??
The likes of TiVo was never made available to everyone (but the idea was sound), when films are released and music it should release it globally, if nothing else it will minize the need for pirating as it offers an excuse.
And finally and maybe MOST importantly stop taking the p*$$ out of the consumers - give them the choice, make the media available in the formats they want and charge accordingly and reasonably, and you will see a change.
If not, piracy will continue, get stronger and simply go underground.

For those of us who recall Suprnova, know just how easy it is for 'the man' to kill the site - but to be honest I hope PIRATEBAY survives this witch-hunt.
PS the advertising for them through this case has only helped them gain users and supporters, so well done on that score :)

This is really a test case for the companies to see how they can move forward with stopping piracy - we should wish them luck (the companies that is)!!!