Quote Originally Posted by tocsin
People in the techno industry who give a shit about piracy are just like most other people. They never cared until it affected them. It was perfectly ok to pilfer sampler after sample, pirate software for creativity purposes, sell drugs to buy gear, and use a pair of bolt cutters to use someone else's property to throw a party. Let some years pass where people can go a bit more legit, and all of a sudden it's no longer cool if they are the other guy who has to deal with punks acting like they did. I still don't think this justifies any person pirating anything, btw. But, for people who will break laws to do what they want, they have no soapbox to stand on for this issue.
Man hitting the nail on the proverbial head is your forte! Such an excellent point. Now that many are "grown up" and/or "legit" they are calling the kettle black. I don't defend pirating of underground music either, but let's be realistic here and note the hypocrisy that exists.

As a side note, I may get totally flamed for this, but ITS MY OPINION. The major record industry conglomerates whine and produce press that they are "losing major revenue" from shared music. However, what they don't note is that their profit margins are still growing every year! Yes, this is a fact and you can research it at any of the major financial websites. ( www.bloomberg.com www.forbes.com ) In 2002 EMI said they lost something around 8-9% in CD sales, yet their profit margin was still up 13% for the year! So boo hoo to them...I feel that's what they get for forcefeeding the market (at least the American market) with a wave of factory produced boy bands and shitty rappers. Its power to the people and as long as the product sucks sales will go down anyway, which is exactly what has been documented as the major reason for the decline in sales! Not the pirated/shared music files, but there has been a shift in the quality of music being released and the public is responding by refusing to purchase it!