great post mac_terminator; very informative.

It is rediculous that a handful of major corporations own virtually ALL the media outlets in the USA. You NEED to read this page:

http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/m...lbox/who_owns/

These six or seven companies (including GENERAL ELECTRIC; WESTINGHOUSE / CBS; VIACOM INTERNATIONAL; DISNEY; AOL-TIME-WARNER; NEWS CORPORATION / FOX NETWORKS) own an astounding amount of all the radio and TV stations, magazines, music labels, and movie studios, as well as several huge newspapers in America (not to mention lots of stuff in the rest of the world).

These are the companies that are being financially hurt by filesharing piracy? As someone else pointed out in another thread, the physical distribution of media is obsolete. This is no surprise. Companies have pushed hard for (and the people have expected) computers to take on the role of all-in-one entertainment centers for at least a decade.

These "Media Middlemen" would have had to alter their sales methods and PRICES as a result regardless of the explosion of piracy. No one is going to pay CD prices for "bits and bytes."

Perhaps the People should be able to set a maximum amount of profit allowed to all industries. This is especially important when the only competition to any given conglomerate is other conglomerates!

If the people who made wax impressions for the first recordings had the same amount of control of the industry and clout with the government as our current media corporations, would I be listening to the phonograph now?