Once upon a time, in a land far away, a group of enterprising gents realized that humans enjoy being entertained. They found ways of magically canning this entertainment to mass-produce it and sell it to the masses. People bought this canned entertainment that they could put to use at will and as often as they wished in droves. The enterprising gents felt this was good. They were able to sell their goods at dozens of times higher than the cost of production and distribution, and this, they felt was very, very good. They made ridiculous amounts of money, from the "artist" on through the whole chain. They lived lives of ridiculous excess and waste and enjoyed flinging it in the face of their public.
These enterprising gents kept making untold reams of money. Money is power. Ridiculous amounts of money equals ridiculous amounts of power. They could now throw their way around and buy the influence of government-elected puppets to do their bidding. This, they thought was good: very good. They saw their canned goods being sold all over the world, and they were even more pleased. Naturally, their power also developed in many of these other countries. They go about like gods.
Along came some people who felt that these enterprising gents were too restrictive and greedy. They developed ways of duplicating their purchased goods so they would not have to pay again if these items got damaged, or so they could enjoy the goods elsewhere. Of course, other people also used some of these tools to further their own greed and resell copies of the goods.
The enterprising gents grew very angry. This was going to potentially cut into the ridiculous profits they were making, so they started wielding some of the power they had and forcing their controlled puppets to put in laws to punish these bad people that could possibly cut into their profits and lives of absurd waste. They even went as far as forcing their government to threaten other countries if they did not do their bidding. Naturally, these countries had seen what these enterprising gents and others like them had done to other countries. They had even made up lies so as to excuse barbarities they had committed to other countries by forcing economic embargoes upon them and even invading them with thousands of troops to destroy everything in sight.
Sad, really. This far-away land is, of course, the US. Americans must stop believing that they are supreme commanders of the universe and impose their will upon whomever they want. The Recording Industry needs a counter-check. They yield far too much power. If they really want to reduce piracy, then try charging fair and affordable prices for the products they sell, allow people to duplicate the products they buy to use for their own enjoyment, and stop throwing their ridiculous amount of money around in peoples face (like $3 million for a wedding that lasts a few days). It only creates contempt and lack of empathy to wanting to buy their products and contribute to this nonsense, hence propagating the unauthorized distribution. Undesired copying is not going to stop because of threats to put people in jail or by threatening other countries.
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