[secretwhistle]

I don't think this is a case of entitlement. There are plenty of people who do without rather than pirate. There are plenty who pirate after trying to make a legitimate purchase. As you say, no one is under any obligation to sell their music, books, etc. to anybody. But if you're going to make it available to purchase, actually make it available to purchase.

Setting it up so that only certain people can purchase your goods does nothing for the two parties most interested in each other: the customer and the artist.

You should plot a graph of your purchases and their subsequent decline. Every decline these days is written off to piracy while situations like yours and BRAT's (and thousands of others) are ignored or dismissed as outliers.