>> The fact is that you *can* pirate almost anything you want
>
> But aren't there lots of people who make good money selling
> legit copies of things that can be pirated?
Yes, I have already made this point. I gave the example of Microsoft.
>> Doug will soon have his revenge on book producers when all
>> that's left is secure paywalls like Kindle: they will be cut
>> out forever.
>
> That will cut out the distributors - but other than that,
> wouldn't the basic situation then just revert to the pre-internet
> copyright status quo - i.e. you have to pay the legal copyright
> owner if you want their stuff?
That's not the pre-Internet status quo: the status quo was that only a few organizations had the capability to produce and market a book/record/movie, and they abused their position. I think a lot of people -- not just Doug -- would love to see a status-quo that involves paying the actual creator of the content. And we may get that. But it won't be copyright that will be giving us that; it'll be secure distribution. Copyright is what got put into place because powerful interests wanted a way to sue someone over piracy. If you make the piracy infeasible, you no longer need copyright. You don't have to sue anyone, because no one will be pirating, at least not on a scale large enough to bother.
None of this has anything to do with Copyright protection.
Dennis Claxton asks:
> So the real copyright enforcer is a lawyer and not a cop?
Of course!
/jordan