scott wrote:
>>  One thing I don't understand is why the music industry is so privileged
>> over other industries?
> 
> Well the size of the industry can't be the reason.  Worldwide there was 
> 20x - 30x more spent on software than on music.
> 
> I guess the music industry just got their act together as a group to 
> protect their interests and managed to convince lots of governments to 
> their way of thinking.
> 
> Actually lots of big industries manage to get special treatment from the 
> government, cigarette manufacturers, car manufacturers etc, so I guess 
> the software industry is just the odd one out.  Maybe MS and Adobe etc 
> should get together and get some taxes on DVD-Rs to be shared out?

Software companies have the reputation of making humongous scads of 
money and getting very very rich, whereas the picture of struggling 
artists just barely getting by remains a popular conception of the music 
industry.  More to the point, a legislator can pretend to subscribe to 
these opinions while crafting legislation.

And this is the key.  As any observer of Western culture can affirm, if 
you discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion, nationality, or 
physical handicap, there is somebody who makes a living out of trying to 
stop you.  But discrimination against the successful is considered a 
perfectly acceptable attitude in most of the world, and certainly in 
most of the world's governments.  Most people simply don't care if a 
rich man gets shafted, and are quite deaf to the idea that it is just as 
wrong to rob a rich man as it is to rob a poor one.  Many people assume 
that every fortune is founded on something other than honest hard work, 
and in the process of their political activity, they accomplish little 
more than making it even more difficult to get rich by means of hard work.

The functional flaw in most democracies is that their respective 
governments are empowered to sacrifice the interests of some of the 
people, people who have done nothing wrong, in the name of some benefit 
to others.  As long as that remains the case, some people will get 
screwed over, and the only remaining question is who gets screwed, and 
for whose benefit.

Regards,
John

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