On 22 Feb 2007 23:06:57 +0000, Christopher England <...> wrote:

Quoting a previous Geoff contribution:-

They put it into Vista…

And now everyone hates it :-)

Except for those who own the rights, I guess.

But of course they still publish music on CDs, where there is no DRM
and the music is at better quality that any download ! There's a perception among IP owners that once music is downloadable from the
web then everyone is a criminal who will try and share it and
illegally distribute it. As the web gets more and more penetration,
the majority of people on there are 'normal' and would not be in
general interested in going to huge lengths to 'steal' music. So the majority are being made to suffer for the sake of the minority.

There is much evidence anyway, that 'illegal' file sharing has helped legitimate music sales by exposing people to music that they would not normally consider buying, but that's another issue. I personally
would buy more music online if it were (1) available in the format and quality that I want and (2) was markedly cheaper than buying a CD.
Apart from allofmp3.com, which the record companies hate, neither is true, so I'll carry on buying my CDs online for £6–9 and rip them
myself onto my portable players and/or PC.

Well, having said that,
I've yet to understand how any of the money actually gets back to the
'right' people anyway. All this collecting money by PRS, PPL, MCPS, bla
bla bla is one big almighty con!

Well, yes it is, I think someone did an analysis once that for a CD retailing at $10, the artists saw less then $1. Must be the same for air play too, how much of the 6–8% of turnover that commercial
stations pay PRS/PPL end up with the artists and composers I wonder ?

(PS Loving Office 2007!)

It is quite pretty. My only question is why change for the sake of change?

I use office 2000 or Openoffice, they do all I need to do and much much more !
—
Regards,

Geoff