[gmku]

I see your point, Porky. And there were bootleggers in the 70s and 80s, too, who'd make a pirate LP from a (shitty sounding) taped copy.

There will always be that element. But aren't the majority of downloading consumers doing it for legitimate reasons--as a quick copy that they'll eventually replace with a real copy, if they like it enough?

It just seems to me, too, that the music industry always uses the "taping" consumer as the scapegoat for its own ineptitude. Maybe if they didn't try to screw the consumer with their inflated prices and tepid releases, fewer consumers would do this.