The funniest thing about piracy...

Piracy is like masturbation. Everybody does it. Nobody denies it. Most people don't talk about it in the open routinely, and many like to tell others not to talk about it when they do. It's accepted as something that is commonplace, yet taboo. But that's not the funny thing, just a good metaphor.

Recently the DRM craze has hit a new low and a new high at the same time. It's more and more common, yet becoming worse and worse. Yes, Sony, I am looking at you.

So, we have two major sides to the issue. There are pirates, and there are the publishers.

The typical pirate pirates for a couple reasons. They might do it for the bragging rights of having filled up 5 120GB HDDs with music and movies, but most have a more conservative approach. Many download things that they aren't legally allowed to because they have no intetion on paying for anything that they don't know if they'll like, or that they might not like enough to spend money on. Some are just looking for something to like. Some are looking for something that they know they like. The only ones that could theoretically hurt the music industry are the last type, that seek what they know they like for free. Now there's a new kind. There's a pirating-to-avoid-DRM pirate or two out there now.

The typical publisher's response has been obvious. If it moves, DRM it. If it keeps moving, add more DRM as that thing is useful. If it stops moving, blame the pirates.

This leads to circular self-supplying problems. All solutions to the problem aggravate it.

Consumers buy CDs. They pay money for a legal hard copy.
Filesharing distributes music to others that did not pay.
Attempts by publisher to associate filesharing to terrorism fail.
Publisher makes DRM, claiming that they are losing money to piracy.
Consumers buy CDs with DRM. DRM is frustrating. Consumers realize that they can get the same music without the DRM for free online. Filesharing increases.
Publisher adds harsher DRM, citing the increase in piracy.
More consumers frustrated. More consumers fileshare.
Publisher and association push to eliminate piracy in all it's forms.
Piracy gets publicity. Filesharing increases.

See the pattern? DRM leads to piracy leads to DRM. The music industry just ignores the fact because it doesn't want to believe it't true. Guess what happens next year? DRM'd CDs, and the amount of piracy increases some.

But it's not just about music, what about all the people that get illegal versions of programs like 3DS MAX, Photoshop, Maya, Dreamweaver, Flash, Vegas...

Most if not all the people that fileshare to get those are the people that wouldn't pay for it if they had to, and could live having never had the programs.

How many times will they shoot themselves in the foot before it starts hurting? They might just be on some kind of drug or drunk beyond belief, because so far they appear completely unfazed by the multiple holes in their foot.