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Movie industry too. See Coming To America. Buchwald was supposed to get a percentage of the profits. It grossed $143M or so, which was major bucks in the 1988 time frame, yet Paramount claimed it never turned a profit.

I heard a song the other day by someone named Norah Jones which I very much liked. I decided to stop by Best Buy and buy it. The CD cost me $11.99.

Then I was looking at the list of upcoming releases, and thought I'd stop back next week and buy the new Tori Amos album. It too is only $11.99.

Then I thought of a couple of other albums I didn't yet have I wanted. For instance "Heart Shaped World" by Chris Isaak, I checked and it is $9.99. Also "Warning:" by Green Day, I checked and it is $15.99.(Wow that's the first one I've seen close to your price range)

Then I thought... You know, I really need to broaden my horizons and stop listening to off beat music and pick up some top-40. So I looked up the latest album from Eminem. I found it for $12.99. Then I decided to find Pink, her album is $13.99.

I've been buying music since 1987 when I purchased my first CD player. Back then the first CD I bought was the Top Gun Soundtrack, and I paid $16.99 for it. Now if you go look at the historical value of the dollar, you'd find that $16.99 in 1987 is worth $26.48 today. But I'm not paying $26 for my music, I'm paying an average $12-14 for it, or about half the price. You should also note that in 1987 I could buy a Cassette for about $6-7, today they are $10.

Basically it seems like you have two problems.

First, you don't understand what the value of money really means. In 1987 I was working as a student and receiving $4/hour. Want to take a guess as to how much students receive now for working on campus?(Try $8-10/hour) It's called inflation, go look it up.

Second, if you are paying $16-20 for your CDs, then you are a really really stupid consumer and PT Barnum was correct. There are many places to buy music cheaper than that.

And as far as DVDs go... You know what, just quit yer whining and go back to playing Nintendo. (BTW, want to take a guess as to what I paid for Atari 2600 video cartridges?)

From Apple's Knowledgebase Article regarding this it implies that this product (and a couple of others) fall into that category of disks that do not qualify for the CD logo. Therefore they are not CDs.

However, stores are marketing this as if it were a CD:
* CDNow lists it as a "CD"
* Amazon lists the media type as "Audio CD"
* CD Universe lists it as a "CD"

If you have purcased a copy protected disk without the CD logo, and it was marketed as an actual CD, you do have grounds to return the disk. Even more so if you got it online and had no opportunity to examine the logo and see warning labels on the disk. If they give you any problems, report them to the Better Business Bureau and/or your state's Attorney General.

I believe that you are mistaken. There are many people still living who remember it and you can buy video tape copies of the show. This seams a little much for "an urban myth"

-- MarkusQ

Shakespeare is public domain, and likewise in Europe, so is any sound recording older than 50 years. This is what allows labels such as Document or Chronological Classics to systematically reissue 20th century jazz, blues, rhythm & blues, etc., from collectors' 78s onto CD.

Such documentation is invaluable to (e.g.) researchers, and we know damn well that it would not be happening if we relied on the goodwill of former copyright owners (RIAA companies, for the most part) which concentrate on much more lucrative goals.

Given that these 78s are justifiably free for anyone to publish on CD, I see absolutely no reason why anyone could not likewise distribute them on the internet. As (and so long as) the public domain grows, this makes a hell of a lot legitimate uses for p2p.

Shakespeare is public domain, and likewise in Europe, so is any sound recording older than 50 years. This is what allows labels such as Document or Chronological Classics to systematically reissue 20th century jazz, blues, rhythm & blues, etc., from collectors' 78s onto CD.

Such documentation is invaluable to (e.g.) researchers, and we know damn well that it would not be happening if we relied on the goodwill of former copyright owners (RIAA companies, for the most part) which concentrate on much more lucrative goals.

Given that these 78s are justifiably free for anyone to publish on CD, I see absolutely no reason why anyone could not likewise distribute them on the internet. As (and so long as) the public domain grows, this makes a hell of a lot legitimate uses for p2p.

"valueable intellectual property"...
psst..

don't tell them it can be obtained by going into a cd store... shhhhh.

Or at CDNow, CDUniverse, Cheap CDs, Buy.com, Amazon.com.....


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I assume that CDUniverse (http://www.cduniverse.com) was flooded with emails from concerned customers such as myself. I sent them an email on Jan.9 asking about this situation, and on Jan.10, I received a reply. This is the email I received:
--------------------------------

Hello,

CD Universe has experienced a breach in security regarding credit card files. We understand your concern for the safety of your credit card. We are currently working with the credit card companies and contacting the effected individuals. For your safety, we suggest that you moniter your credit cards closely over the next few weeks and report any suspicious activity to your creidt card company and CD Universe as well.

Amy
Customer Service Team
www.cduniverse.com

--------------------------------
-goon (ty)

I can't freakin' believe this, that the people CDUniverse were actually going to pay the blackmail instead of trying to either fix the hole, or alert law enforcement/credit card companies to what happened!

This disgusts me, it's not that CDUniverse didn't pay because they might have though he was bluffing, but they didn't pay because their were worried that they might get into legal trouble for that! What about the customers with the comprimised credit card numbers in the first place, don't they mean anything to CDUniverse? Bastards.

I don't think I'll ever be doing business with CDUniverse. I think I'll be dropping a line to manager@cduniverse.com and telling them why, too!

We have all heard a lot of talk about whether shopping on the internet is safe. The fact is that this year on-line shoppers will spend over $5.7 billion dollars according to International Data Corp. The main concern of on-line shoppers is that their credit card information will somehow end up in the wrong hands. We use Netscape's Secure Commerce Server technology, which encrypts your order information, keeping it private and protected. It's a Netscape technology called "SSL" (Secure Sockets Layer) and it's used by us and all the other major commercial shopping sites, including: The Wall Street Journal, Barnes & Noble Books, FTD Flowers, Microsoft, and Netscape itself. It is actually safer to transmit your credit card info over the Internet than it is to use your credit card around town.

CD Universe has successfully processed over one hundred thousand credit-card transactions, without a single credit card number being compromised. In February 1997 we were named one of the 10 best commerce sites in the world by PC Week magazine.

cduniverse.com actually includes these numbers in their album detail pages. Sometimes they're incomplete, but you could just look the album up on that site before you sign up for something so you know the password you use matches their listing.