About this IPRED-thingy
I agree that copyright laws should be followed, but the current approach to deal with the problem of piracy has serious downsides.
In the wake of the IPRED law and the Pirate Bay Trial the amount of VPN-services have exploded. The quest for the next techniques to share data AND being untraceable have more people behind it than ever before.
So if you think about it, people who spread child pornography and other criminals also receive benefit from this.
I do not believe there is a way to put a total stop to piracy with laws and restrictions. Because the trail we are walking on is leading towards banning the use of strong encryption algorithms or demanding a license to use it. This will lead to reduced security and in the long run we might see an end to Internet. I mean how much will an operating system cost that can provide the user with https?
And who said that artists automatically become rich?
It is a job they get paid for like everyone else and the salary is connected to the current demand.
The media industry must, just as everything else on this earth, adapt to the current situation, or you will die.
Stop wasting money on this was and start developing new services! Today I pay $12 a month for a premium Spotify account. Before that I never bought any music. I really hope the money only goes to the artists I am listening to since I do not want to pay for crap.
I believe this is the way to go, and hopefully we get rid of a lot of crappy bands :-)