The recent crack down on illegal download websites has really got me annoyed. I can see the point of the companies who own the rights to music and films but to be fair, they only have themselves to blame. If they produce a product that is so good that everybody wants to hear / see it then they should make it possible for everybody to hear / see it legally. I'm not as informed on the music scene but the way I see it is that there is no reason to illegally download music because tracks can be purchased legally and at a reasonable price through itunes. I accept that the makers of music deserve an income from it but at the same time, when they don't have to pay for materials (i.e. a CD, case and packaging) then the cost should be reduced.
I recently looked into buying a Kindle only to find that the price of electronic books is the same as paper books - why? Surely not having to pay for paper, ink and the printing process would make the product cheaper? If there's no benefit to me for buying an e-book, I'd rather have a paper version.
The same is true of films and TV programmes. To my knowledge, there are no legal download sites. I have seen that Amazon have started screening some series but I can't comment on this further which brings me to another point. Why are so many songs, videos and programmes banned in certain countries? I can understand that some countries have stronger censorship rules that I am used to England but Germany certainly isn't one of them. Time and again, I am denied access to things that I have seen several times in England: you tube music videos, bbc iplayer and the amazon links from imdb. If only the makers gave me a legal way for me to hear and watch these things here in Germany, that wasn't as extortionate as buying the product (which often isn't available here in the shops either) or paying for Sky TV, they could make a small fortune out of me, and I can't be the only one!
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