Going to have to disagree with you there. It’s not a black-and-white issue, so why does one have to be right and the other wrong? As you point out in the rest of your post, the media companies seem to be doing their level best to alienate their customers and the only solution to the problem is… piracy. A pirated MP3 comes with all of the portability, a far more reasonable pricetag and no risk it’s going to expire in the future. The only downside is that it’s illegal.
I’m not saying it should be legal, but the fact that despite being outlawed it’s such a problem means that the media companies will have to re-evaluate what people are willing to give up for the companies’ product. Apparently they’re not willing to give up portability, reliability and €15 for ten insipid tracks, including two recycled (oh, sorry, “remixed”) from the last album. So piracy is forcing overpriced products to reflect their true worth.
But, of course, it’s NOT a permanent solution and hopefully won’t be needed when I can finally get my media in a quick, painless and reasonably priced fashion.