This site is rarely updated. benbrophy.com is more up-to-date. - Ben
Shoplifting MP3s
From Walter Mossberg's column in the Wall Street Journal, Media Companies Go Too Far in Curbing Consumers' Activities
Even if you think the record labels and movie studios are stupid and greedy, as many do, that doesn't entitle you to steal their products. If your local supermarket were run by people you didn't like, and charged more than you thought was fair, you wouldn't be entitled to shoplift Cheerios from its shelves.
I agree by and large with his message, which I read as "leave the consumers alone and go after the people pirating for profit." But I can't stand that metaphor. It's the old copying a music file = shoplifting metaphor. Except, it doesn't work. If shoplifted some Cheerios, the store would then no longer have the Cheerios. It is simply not possible for me to make a copy of the Cheerios and leave the original Cheerios box in the store.
You see what I mean? The metaphor gets so surreal when you start trying to follow it.
A more accurate metaphor is that instead of buying the Cheerios, my friend gave me some free Cheerios he made at home (violating General Mills' Cheerios patent). The store doesn't get my business, but they get to keep their Cheerios.
The media really need a new metaphor if they want a breakthrough on this copying music business.