The Boston Globe has a good article on the impact of CD burning on the music industry. It seems that direct CD-to-CD copying is probably having a greater effect on record sales than MP3 trading, especially as these practices become more widestream and spread beyond those with broadband access. Contains a lot of whining from the record industry about how they can't charge $20 any more for a CD. Tough... they've been able to do sinister things like reverse discounting (increasing the price as albums get older) and overcharging everyone (to neither the musicians nor the fan's benefit) for years, simply because of their control over the distribution medium. Now that technology isn't on their side any more, they're desperate for help from the legislature, etc.
We don't need laws taxing CD burners or media -- why should people who are not going to use these devices for music copying, like me, pay for the problems of the music industry. If you feel the same way and want to protect your rights, check out DigitalConsumer.Org
The article closes with quotes from Elvis Costello (a great artist, I've got tons of his MP3s, natch), who is anti-copying, but notes that "...at least in terms of the big record companies, 'They've loaded the game so the house has been winning for a long time. Now it's time maybe for the house not to win for a while. Maybe they have to take some losses.'"
