Capitalism in this country is becoming a joke. Competition is no longer an issue of which company has the best product or service, it's an issue of which company has the best lawyers and the most money. It's so easy to bankrupt competition by suing them into oblivion, what's the point of improving your product or service?

I don't use KaZaA or any software of that ilk very often. Just once in a while to decide whether or not I'm interested enough in a CD to buy it. Most of my music I get from E Music and MP3.Com, so music sharing really isn't my scene. But what pisses me off is that the RIAA wants to shut down the P2P networks when a) they can be used for many other purposes than sharing copyrighted music and b) there is no industry-sanctioned alternative! I pay $10 / month to subscribe to E Music, and it is worth every single penny and more. I would be willing to pay another $10 / month to have a similar service from big labels. And even if that's not their idea of a good time, I am willing, as, I believe, are most people, to purchase a CD that I know is worthwhile: they need to make it easy to sample CDs before purchasing them. Most people are sick of paying $15+ for a non-returnable CD with one good song on it, simply because they had no way of knowing beforehand that the CD sucked.

In an ideal world, I propose a system wherein you pay on a graduated scale based on the quality of the music you want to download. 5-15 cents for a 64kbit version, 25-50 cents for 128kbit, $1 for 192kbit. If you buy a lower quality version, you get an equivalent discount on the higher quality versions (i.e., you buy the 64kbit version for 15 cents, you can buy the 50-cent 128kbit version for 35 cents.) You can either download the whole album this way, or, if you like what you hear, you can get an equivalent discount when you order it, (i.e. the CD costs $15, you bought 3 1-dollar songs, so you can get the CD sent to you for $12 + S&H). And make them an open format (i.e. MP3): don't you dare tell me what I can and can't do with the music I paid for.

This way, the record companies still get a shitload of money and the consumers get a shitload of flexibility and an easy way to sample music before shelling out big bucks.

This'll never happen 'cuz it makes too much sense and it encourages record companies to sign artists with genuine talent rather than the ability to churn out 1 hit an album. ::sighs and goes back to his idealized world that can't ever exist::

I'm scared to death living in this country. The US Government scares the living shit out of me. I have to get the hell out of here.