>The reason: We won. And all you audiophiles and copyfighters, you know who fixed our problems? The record labels and online stores we loved to hate. I'm not s

>The reason: We won. And all you audiophiles and copyfighters, you know who fixed our problems? The record labels and online stores we loved to hate. I'm not sure I follow the logic here. I would argue that the rejection of DRM systems wasn't fixed by labels. They had to be brought kicking and screaming to that particular table. In this whole thing, what's funny to me is that the solution to the whole issue was known as soon as Napster got big - make all the songs available, and make them cheap, and most people will stop bothering with pirated music. I know I got bored with pirated music about a week after starting it. Personally, in the fullness of time, the record companies will come to love digital music. There's one less middleman taking a cut, no inventory to worry about, and new ideas, cross promotions and artists can be brought to market and tested faster than ever. The biggest losers appear to be the people who did album art, but maybe with the high quality screens of digital devices, they'll find new ways to show their talent. But digital music will always have it's roots in piracy, something that will end up as a trivia nugget in years to come, kind of like how people talk about how NASCAR got going because of bootleggers running moonshine. 'For 20 points, how did digital music become popular and displace the CD?'