The law actually states that you can only retain things recorded off the air - television or video - for a short period of time, Chris. It is actually illegal to retain it indefinitely but, as with punishing downloaders, everyone knows it is unenforceable so most people will happily keep everything for as long as they like.
There is, however' still a massive divide between the past and present regarding not the difficulty of copying but, as I said before, the ease of distribution. Copying something onto a tape for a friend creates one copy. It costs you time and money to tape something while peer-to-peer systems can distribute thousands of copies simultaneosly. The past and present are not particularly comparable in terms of the effect copying has on sales.
There is, however' still a massive divide between the past and present regarding not the difficulty of copying but, as I said before, the ease of distribution. Copying something onto a tape for a friend creates one copy. It costs you time and money to tape something while peer-to-peer systems can distribute thousands of copies simultaneosly. The past and present are not particularly comparable in terms of the effect copying has on sales.
