From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Tue Aug 01 2000 - 10:45:20 MDT
What has recently struck me is that the RIAA has managed to destroy the
music industry. If they'd arranged to sell songs for a dollar online,
they might have moved the traditional market into ecommerce, and
cheating would be perceived as evil. Now, people have the expectation
of free music. People are used to downloading free music. Even if the
RIAA eventually gets a clue and moves to correct the mistake, the market
will be divided into unusually ethical buyers and the mass of pirates,
instead of the mass of buyers and the unusually unethical pirates.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://singinst.org/singinst.html
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