You are correct in what you say about producers pricing a product and consumers having a choice.  I believe that the real issue here is that consumers now have a moral choice and for many the morality of pirating a cd from a torrent site or even burning it from a friend is not a difficult decision.<p>You will have a hard time finding someone my age or younger (early twenties) who thinks that pirating a cd is equivalent to steeling anything; and building upon that idea many even think torrenting/pirating software and video games is an acceptable thing.<p>I don't know what will happen with music and its distribution but one thing I can say is it probably won't stay the way it is indefinitely.