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Many people have come of age with

Quoth A. Metet: the expectation that music ought to be free, because that is all they have known. They see the creation of music as an inexhaustable fountain from which they can drink as often and as long as they wish. Now that they have gotten used to having their music for free, they won't want to go back to paying for it.<< Interesting that the govt and its RF licensees *created* this expectation. With the complicity of the creators and their ASCAP et al. mafia. Since the 30s, people "came of age" with free radio, all you have to do is listen to the commercials, you can tape what you want, and dupe those copies too. Later the same situation with TV. The internet did the same with e.g., news and commentary, though there was no govt-granted slice of spectrum involved here, just the value of eyeballs, market share in an exponentially growing population. The development of this expectation of "free as in beer" is really an aside to Metet's essay. But the EFF proposal which he lauds is just an upgraded ASCAP. What they and others really need to get their heads around is the Street Performer Protocol, and/or the Grateful Dead business model.