Originally Posted by KingDaddyO

I agree with most of your comments, but have to disagree with this one. If you had said that 'some people would not buy' I could see that. In my experience, most people (certainly not all, and probably not as many younger people as older folks) don't mind paying a reasonable price for something of value. But consequences to an action, doesn't always require outside enforcement to be effective - many of us learn (eventually) to deal in an honorable manner with others, since that is probably the way that we wish to be treated.

Choosing between STOLEN or FREE is a huge difference. I believe that many people would, of course ... take the FREEbie with no guilt. But given the chose between paying a reasonable fee to won the object, and blatant theft of a known STOLEN item ... I think that more than a few would choose to pay rather than take the STOLEN one. Now I don't have statistics or whatnot to back my belief up, but people can surprise you sometimes.

DISCLAIMER: I realize that, as we're discussing illegal file sharing here, where songs are reasonably priced at .99, that my scenario does not appear to be backed up by the fact that many people do not choose to pay a reasonable price for their songs. But I think that that may be related to a disconnect in people's minds (regarding online behavior), which is similiar to the way in which there is also a disconnect with people's behavior, when they are behind the wheel. Drivers often do things, that they would never dream of doing in a direct interactive manner (i.e., in the real world). That doesn't make it right, but it is something to ponder.