Mandy Monkeyhanger has been tilting his ear towards the film companies and music businesses who claim that their very existence is threatened by illegal downloading. These are the film companies who release DVDs as freebies each week in the Daily Mail, and repackage the same material time after time. How many times has Nr No (first released in 1962) been re-released on VHS and Betamax, DVD, Blu-Ray, Widescreen, I-Max, etc, with the punter expected to pay for it all over again? Similarly with music: lp, audiophile lp, CD, 5-1, 7-1 etc.
The general perception is that content is cheap and cheerful, and instantly disposable. The regime for royalty payment bears much of the blame. The providers need to embrace legal file-sharing services, such as Spotify and WE7, and make available freebie low-quality films and music in the expectation that people who want a higher-quality version will pay for it. However, it is possible to get higher quality material than is found on commercial CDs and DVDs - most people cannot tell the difference (or are satisfied with the regular product) - but there is a market out there.
Criminalising a wide section of the population is a sticky wicket to bat on. If Mandy M casts his ear a little wider, then perhaps he will learn that his pals might have the righteous on his side, but they are in a small minority.