[paulsutter]

Seriously. I don't have a single music or video on any media in my home. I stream music to my Sonos and listen to a more awesome range of incredible music than ever before (thanks Pandora and Rdio). This morning it was ethiopian jazz, romantic era piano, ska and early reggae.

True that streaming movies are a weak selection today. But dealing with media is such an annoyance, I'd rather just wait till the selection gets better than deal with all the file formats and wasted time copying files around. I have a more interesting life to lead than that.

[irishcoffee]

Surely you're not implying people who copy files on occasion have uninteresting lives, worth more no more than a passing sneer? That would be a terribly absurd thing to imply.

Surely in this day and age, you can't actually have trouble with file types?

Surely you don't think everyone who copies files from one volume to another just sits around with baited breath waiting for the transfer to complete?

[paulsutter]

Of course not. Thanks for pointing it out! I'm just expressing my appreciation for great software and systems that make the process effortless. Like Pandora and Netflix.

And no I don't have trouble with file types. I just like to watch or listen immediately, without a lot of fussing around, and I'm happy to pay for it because good content is expensive to produce.

And of COURSE file sharers don't sit around idly, waiting for a copy to complete. They can read comic books while they wait. Or walk up to the kitchen from the basement bedroom in their parents' house for a FREE bite to eat.

[pessimizer]

Aesthete file sharers frequently have access to movies and music that simply can't be purchased. In the case of movies, subtitles are made every day in a myriad of languages for movies that have never been subtitled. Things that have been lost to the mainstream due to lack of general marketability thrive in the niches that have been created by the maintenance and curation of digital files on hard drives.

[paulsutter]

You make a great point. For example, I love Yasujiro Ozu movies, but very few of them are available on DVD. It would make so much more sense for those movies to be available to everyone through a streaming system, rather than have to sneak around exchanging files.