$16 dollars *is* too much. I think there is a relationship between the cost of a work and the extent to which it is pirated. The higher the cost, the greater the amount of pirating. Why spend the time and effort to pirate a $4 CD or a $.99 song? There comes a time when the resources involved to pirate a work exceeds the cost to obtain it legitimately. You'll always have people who will cheat, but the majority will be decent enough to do the right thing.

The cheaper the work is obtain, the greater the numbers of those who will get it, if it's good. When you look at the numbers of consumers who would purchase a $.99 song, I think you'd find that the costs to produce that song and make it available to the public are more than met. There are groups now who record and mix their own music and distribute it on the Internet for far less than the professional recording companies.

The industry is plain greedy; the consumers know it and the pirates know it.

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