Absolutely right, N0Man74. You see it the way it has always seemed to me, all along.

This is clearly how it functions for most intelligent, regular, broadband users. These have been the apparent facts for twenty years. Free markets are supposed to self regulate by responding to demand. But its far more lucrative to attempt to regulate markets and limit the options of the people. If the product is has a poor value, but corporate monopolies dictate access to that market, its laws, technology, and access, then we the consumer all ultimately wind up with a crappy value.
I recall when TV was free and if you paid for cable you received many commercial free channels of programming 24/7. Now I pay 10 times more than I ever dreamed for 10 times the channels, but I get commercials on every channel, and a smaller rotation of content. I pay more and get less because I only have one cable provider, and they just bought NBC, which owns several cable stations that together produce a significant chunk of the content Not only do we allow the elimination of free market competition within a particular industry segment, we permit that engorged parasite to begin dominating adjacent industries. How does ABC compete with NBC when NBC is Comcast and ABC has no transmitter in my market now? Its terrible for the consumer and free market capitalism. Its great for corporate dominance of hijacked markets. Its the way things are, for sure, but eliminating all piracy will never make their over priced shit worth buying. The market can't be regulated punitively, unless of coarse, consumers have no real options or freedom. Its this moral outrage that incites "piracy", not any real value in the media, but rather a disrespect and disdain for the market options . If nobody wants to buy your crap, then it should just disappear and be replaced by whatever the market demands. I would never pay for any of it, and I don't care if I can't demo it. But if producers can't generate sales, then I guess the next best tactic is to let the media be easily tracked and exchanged, and then threaten lawsuits. That way no residuals need to be paid, losses can be trumped up, and content mediocrity wins market dominance, just like the crappy cable infomercials that override my content program access that I once purchased.

Piracy, unfortunately doesn't benefit anyone well enough, or hurt the corporate oligarchies that spew them, nearly enough to make them stop or make any improvements. Would that were true, then at least there would be some real sense of value or consequence of these inconsequential "crimes" of indifference. But honestly, I never find any real value in any down loadable media of any kind. I just don't need it or really care to take the time to pay attention to it. I never use 99%. Its just like clicking through all of those cable channels you never watch anyway, even though you bought them, like it or not. Its there, but you can't eat everything on a menu, even if its all available to you. The value of all of it is just not that high when most people in the economy can barely get buy, and the stuff that really matters can't be routinely forgotten on a hard drive.

Flame broiling people chops is illegal? No more happy meals??

Thats the PHONE COMPANY. When did they ever meet anyone's expectations for very long? When did a regular customer not feel ripped off? When did the failure consumer protection, anti-trust laws, and monopoly markets ever feel like a good deal with a capital G?

Can you hear me now? Was that a pin that dropped? You just paid another $4G's for another 2Y contract for the very same FREE electrons that were once broadcast into Gilligan's Island reruns on channel 2. Now we're paying for that network bandwidth, while marooned on a desert island with real cannibals.....and on hold forever.

4G is one more G than 3 and twice as many as 2G. Thats a lot of G!. Now that you have 4G, and its still a cell phone that sucks 4 times as much, you better buy some more G or else you'll be a tiny little "g" and everyone will laugh at you....

Which defeats the purpose.....its a conundrum.... what came first, an actual person with no rights, or an hypothetical person's actual rights?

Just like AIG mortgages, Katrina floods, So Cal wild fires, and America's heath plan, when its time for that insurance in times of disaster, suddenly you realize you don't really have the coverage required to restore your losses. Its kind of like most things when you pay in advance of receiving the goods.
Lets just see if the insurance industry fell into the cracks, yet again, leaving flood victims "high and dry" in the low and wet. I bet that earthquake coverage just got washed away by all of that salt water. So it you gotta have boat insurance under that much water.

"Its a Tsunami not an earthquake, Mr. Miagi....so sorry" ....

All of those disaster policies only sold you a false sense of security, in exchange for years of cash..... Who gets to break their legs if they don't pay...another act of God, or the Yakuza?

Don't forget the management, the boardroom, the bankers, and wall street in general. Its never about optimizing technology, its about optimizing the marketing options and fine print so that the corporate monolith can maximize profits. Getting it right would be counter productive to their strategy. Corporations are just like oligarchs.

Exactly right. You understand the concept precisely.
Its just my electrons are created by magic elves.
...up in my hot air balloon.

Like you said:

Like Dr.Phil Says, "You can't fix what you don't acknowledge"
but YOU DO ACKNOWLEDGE exactly this ironic, universal, flaw of human nature. Civilization-at-large has perpetuated and permeated this myth across all ethnic, political, temporal, historical, cultural and other designations of humanity since the dawn of reason. That would include us peeps now. Therefore, it makes complete sense to me that if we the people keep acting just like people usually behave, then we should continue to get comparable results. And if you really look at it all closely, objectively and/or subjectively, within the context of a mortal human lifespan, it looks like all human development from an infancy to the grave: Potty training will continue to be necessary for civilization until we no longer exist. The Sphinx learned this riddle and the Nile went to straight hell, yet again. So, like all neurotic behavior, humans will continue to ruin a perfectly good empire, civilization, dynasty, or Renaissance. Its what makes us so successful at being human, in spite of our denials and accomplishments. Nature and God just don't care how much we flail around like goof balls and visionaries. And perhaps thats exactly why everything that you state above is precisely as you have wisely observed with stunning clarity. You have seen the light, in spite of all of the stunning darkness that persists. Don't let the turkeys get you down, no matter the futility of reality. Bravo. Encore Lather, rinse, repeat.

Its a start, I suppose, but all energy is expensive, messy, and finite when implemented by civilization at large. Perhaps a calorie saved is a calorie earned and we should focus on the social engineering required to organize human lives in a way that does not require so much expenditure of resources, Biological, Green, or Toxic. We require very little as individual biological entities, and yet we consume a million times that much resource in order to drive and fly in circles all day long. Bacterial fuels won't solve the problems we cause by retarded urban planning and lifestyles. Neither will antibiotics, although it might be a deal breaker for the bacteria.

In the state of Reality, Utah is a concept

...Or just act really cool locally, totally incognito - a future so byte you gotta wear shades..

....they went to extremities with the appendages . Give 'em a hand for getting a leg up !

Good Point! This is a philosophical issue of ethics in any exchange: can you trust in the "value" of what you buy with money? Transactions don't always equate to fairness where value is exchanged for profits.