Diamonds & the RIAA

eaglebtc writes "After reading the previously-posted article on cdfreaks.com about the rapid erosion of cheap CDR's, I found another equally scintillating write-up about the economics of music CDs written by Richard Menta, founder of MP3 Newswire. Sure, we've all heard the whining about how CDs are so expensive, but Mr. Menta takes a unique perspective on the issue by comparing the RIAA to DeBeers. He argues that both companies control distribution of products in their respective markets with an iron fist, and by so doing can artificially raise prices. Coincidentally, the bubble is beginning to burst in both markets: the RIAA is fighting against the uprisings of P2P software, and the diamond cartel's lawyers are losing sleep over the $5 diamonds produced in a lab."

Comments

And Israel is declaring war.

[Anonymous Coward]

Something to think about.

GET YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT!

[Anonymous Coward]

When the fuck exactly are you people going to acknowledge Kirk Cameron as the genius he is?

Run, don't walk, and see The Growing Pains Movie, today!

If you have mod points and would like to support Kirk Cameron, please moderate this post up.

moderation

[NetMagi]

If only congress had a slashdot like moderation system and regular plain old "voting-age" folks could meta-moderate. .

It would take some of the "well I'm in office now so I can do whatever I want" fuhqtards outta the system. If they're not doing what WE want. . then why are they there?

YOU FAIL IT!

[Anonymous Coward]

Failure is not an option! Worse yet, the FP is ontopic, funny, insightful and leaves one with a feeling of peace and tranquility!P> FAILURE!

Re:Labor Of Love

[Anonymous Coward]

Legal, safe prostitution solves the whole mess.

Two months salary my ass. Considering the history of the engagement ring (a down payment that the woman's family keeps if come wedding day her virtue is besmirched and the groom is nowhere to be found) there's aren't many women now day who fit the original bill.

You want to bring down DeBeers? You've got to break the government supported tang monopoly!

The Song Remains The Same: DeCSS +1, Incendiary

[Anonymous Coward]

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
# 531-byte qrpff-fast, Keith Winstein and Marc Horowitz
# MPEG 2 PS VOB file on stdin -> descrambled output on stdout
# arguments: title key bytes in least to most-significant order
$_='while(read+STDIN,$_,2048){$a=29;$b=73;$ c=142;$ t=255;@t=map{$_%16or$t^=$c^=(
$m=(11,10,116,100,1 1,122,20,100)[$_/16%8])$t^=(72, @z=(64,72,$a^=12*($_%16
-2?0:$m&17)),$b^=$_%64?12 :0,@z)[$_%8]}(16..271);if ((@a=unx"C*",$_)[20]&48){$h
=5;$_=unxb24,join"",@ b=map{xB8,unxb8,chr($_^$a[--$ h+84])}@ARGV;s/...$/1$&/;$
d=unxV,xb25,$_;$e=256| (ord$b[4])>8^($f=$t&($d>>12^ $d>>4^
$d^$d/8))>8^($t&($g=($q=$e>>14&7^$e)^$q*8^ $q>=8)+= $f+(~$g&$t))for@a[128..$#a]}print+x"C*",@a}';s/x/p ack+/g;eval

In Soviet Russia...

[xintegerx]

In Soviet Russia, underground deposits withdraw you!

Re:The names may change, but

[Anonymous Coward]

The Northeast. Look around Rev-war encampments, biker bars, and SCA events. Hell, just look at the Renn Faire. They are out there--you just need to follow the right crowd.

Hate to say it, but physical beauty is still considered a requirement for a bride. Therefore, eligible candidates will be if anything more scarce.

Re:The RIAA, DeBeers, Gemology and Maxell X0X

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll think about the poor children in Afrika AFTER I get sent to the federal prison for 33 months, a felony on my record for life, and fined $107,250,000 (minimum fine) for the mp3's I owned.