When technology changes, those that keep running on the old models of commerce will be out of business. Passing laws to protect a business from advancing tech never works.
So, creating laws to protect intellectual property and copyright is protecting a company from advancing tech? My company (which was affected greatly by this pirate site) is on the cutting edge of eBooks. We're talking all the bells and whistles. We're on the cutting edge, and I spend a lot of time making suggestions to Adobe, some of which have been implemented.
The small (and big) companies who were hurt were not those relying on old outmoded business models, but rather ones that had embraced eBooks and electronic classrooms.
How many buggy whip companies are still in business? None.
BUZZ! You want an exact numbers, or would you rather admit that there are still buggy whips being produced?
The smart ones starting making car antennas.
Protected by law.
People confuse society with government too much, as pointed out over 225 years ago:
Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; Whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; The former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.
Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; In its worst state an intolerable one: For when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer...
Thomas Paine
Common Sense
Very nice quote. How about one from a noted philospher:
STOP STEALING SHIT AND YOU WON'T GET ARRESTED!
--Chris Rock
Your whole post did nothing to state WHY what was being done in my example is a good thing. Trying to claim that we aren't adapting to modern technology is laughable. Your buggy whip example is hilarious.
How about less "Rage against the man!" and more "This is why there shouldn't be P2P regulations against theft:"