John Wallace wrote:
<snipped my own stuff>
>
>
> Sorry for the huge quote, but wanted to say "amen!" to that. The record
> companies sit between the producer and the consumer, and are desperateto
> milk that position for as long as possible. The first price reduction of
> music CDs comes TWENTY YEARS after they were released onto the market,
> and in response to fears over MP3s and P2P.

The gaming industry is adapting the same approach, they want to base
their purchase numbers on their own PR campaigns and artificially
created hypes instead of giving people the quality and content they
actually want. And we all know it won't work, partially because people
still have their free will (not to buy any particular game), partially
because quite a few people consider it worthwhile to lay down a
considerable amount of work on free, open-source projects which threaten
the quality of the games of the professional business.

>
> It's funny to read about the fears over China's respect, or lack
> thereof, for the IP of companies, but watch the reaction of those same
> companies when you try to put increased rights for their workers.
> "Nothing should be put as an artificial barrier to a free market" etc. I
> (almost) can't blame them for their protectionist approach, but I do
> blame our politicians for being bought by them, and us for voting for
> the morons.

The western societies have never really understood the capitalistic
paradigma; The companies do *want* monopoly, or any advantage (fair or
unfair) they can get over their competitors. The consumers want the
opposite, no monopoly, free trade, free competition under even and fair
conditions so that they can get the quality they want to the price they
want.

A person working in a factory wants monopoly when he is at work (since
his job is dependant on the market), and the opposite when he finishes
work every day and takes on the cap called "consumer". This dualism is
really what threaten our societies of freedom and democracy, not how
others feel about the way we think. These two forces are opposite, and
what happens when you have two opposite forces? You go nowhere!

> Sorry, getting WAAAAY OT :-)

Yeah, I know, I have the same problem. Hehe.

---Asgeir---