Comment Re:Prohibition? (Score 1) 243
I think that's exactly the point he was trying to make when he said "It's absurd to expect ordinary members of the public to think about what they're allowed to do [with CDs, digital downloads, etc]... and then ask themselves whether it's legal or not.". Because downloading music became so easy and so anonymous so quickly, it entered into the ordinary workflow of people's lives and users that download are so numerous that the chances of any one of them getting caught are infinitesimal at best. Geeks get really up in arms about it and so does the recording industry, but in between are hundreds of millions if not billions of people who genuinely don't care about the politics of it beyond "Is what I'm doing illegal and can I get caught easily?". I hate to break it to the recording industry, but the number of people who are acclimated to downloading music—legally or otherwise—is increasing rapidly, and the number of people who prefer to physically walk into a music store or best buy/walmart/whatever to buy a CD is dwindling fast.