Do you really think that all people want to do is turn their friends on to new content (music/film/TV/etc) and just share selected clips? All the < 25 year olds I know want to fill their 20-gig IPODs up with 5,000 songs they didn't pay for and burn VCDs of the entire season of their TV shows so they don't have to pay what they consider the outrageous prices the entertainment industry has maintained.

Piracy is a price issue, IMO, and the only thing that will stop it is when you can download a CD for four or five bucks, or buy CD in the store for five or seven (sort of like classical music CDs). The software industry pushed prices down and it worked (remember when most desktop software was $799, 899, etc). As a matter of fact they seem to have stopped trying to lock down software in most cases (of course try to pirate Office for XP and you'll be in for a big surprise).

There is a big difference in how we, as people who did not grow up with the Internet, view piracy and those who did grow up with it. Young people see piracy of music as civil disobedience. Not sure how anything would change that except massive price cuts. Fighting this next generation of consumers will only make them stronger, as you can see in how much more powerful Kazaa is when compared to Napster.

I agree Jason that music prices should go down - in fact, I think the buck-a-song download that Universal et al are pushing is a good start, as it does not force you to buy a crappy CD with one good song on it. But yes, I really do think at the end of the day, people want to be treated with respect - in other words, not like presumptive criminals. And yes, I thikn the best thing about music and content of all sorts is the ability to share it. It's in our nature (and our cultural norms) to want to share, and to compensate people fairly. It's also in our nature to want to own something, to claim that ownership from value given. I don't believe the industry when it presumes otherwise.

Here is the text of Peter Chernin's (CEO of NewsCorp) keynote speech at Comdex last Tuesday on "The Problem with Stealing". Many familiar arguments as John mentions above, but also heavy emphasis on the need for tech and content companies to work together (they have previously been contentious) to prevent piracy and ensure emerging technologies like Broadband. George Lucas spoke in the middle of Chernin's speech, saying "'It's individual entertainers, not entertainment companies, that stand to lose the most from rampant content piracy. Corporations are like cockroaches. They'll survive everything.'"

Waynu's breakdown of the Chernin speach.