Why people share music instead of buying it.

As Kris Köhntopp points out over and over again, file sharing can give consumers a level of comfort and value that money, unfortunately, can’t buy these days.A friend points me to a great recording of Brahms’ German Requiem (Leinsdorf with the Boston Symphony). I want to buy that recording as a christmas gift for my father — it’s not available on this side of the Atlantic, I’m told.I order the sound track for Chicago (dozed through the movie on a trans-Atlantc flight some time ago, still want to get the sound track) from Amazon — it’s three weeks and counting now, and I was just told that it may take some more weeks.Add to this Kris’ observation that CDs often come with copy protection mechanisms these days which aren’t effective against determined attackers, but can break players; that digital music is either unavailable legally, or DRMed to the extent that it’s not portable across player platforms (and technology generations); add to this that MP3s are not so encumbered.Then, why on earth, should people pay money to be allowed to wait a month for a product that may quite well be inferior to what’s available almost freely and almost immediately, can be used across platforms, and is available in formats that are suitable for long-time archival?