With retail there are alot more costs involved with getting the products onto the market where as via the internet the costs are dramatically lowered by the time it reached the end user/customer. More and more companies are now beginning to sell their media over the internet because it lowers the cost for them and the time for the item to be released.
Main reason why I hardly even buy CDs of music is because they cost too much and the stuff I want is hardly ever seen on Australia. $40-60 for a double CD is ridiculous.
ISPs offer plans with high quota because they know people will use them up for those purposes. Reason why peole use internet for these purposes is because the high cost of market items is too high AND it is more convenient for the user to browse the net rather than get in the car, drive to shopping mall, spend 3 hours searching for a good bargain, then pay the price which is quite high at these times and then drive back home and use it.
The way I see it is pirating media has actually lowered the cost of items and made companies pursue better alternatives so that the user can buy the item at a relatiely cheap prices. I go to JB HiFi now and actually buy CDs that are on special....from like $36 down to $12! I can dish out the 10-20bucks but prices for media files on the shelf are just ridiculous.
I actualy buy DVDs now as well from movies that have been out for a while... the price is good and a tripple movie set for $18 is a good bargai...aspecially if you want to watch a movie that you like.
