I understand what you are trying to say, but strongly disagree. iTunes is ridiculously easy to setup and use. Paying cable + DVR box is ridiculously easy to pay for and use. People are just incredibly selfish and feel entitled to free stuff.
A few select services (Netflix, Steam, uhh that's it?) are more convenient than piracy. Piracy rate on a $1 iTunes games is often 50 to 90 percent. It doesn't get any cheaper or easier than that.
You see, I live in country where iTMS is available since maybe two months (Poland). Since then, I've spent some money on music - maybe $20 or $30, but I don't think that really matters - and that was the first time I actually paid for music. Before that, there were few times that local start-ups tried to fill this gap in this market, but they inevitably failed - mainly because they content sucked, but also because it was inconvenient as hell.
You see - that thing is happening all over again with TV Shows and Movies. As far as I know, there's no legal way for me to watch latest episodes of shows that I like. There just isn't. I would be happy to pay $5 or maybe even $10/month and be able to stream HD episodes to my PS3, without having to deal with eztv.it, RSS feeds, rtorrent and all this crap. I really would. But I can't. I simply can't.
Now, for movies it's another thing - I think I can buy/rent movies from iTunes, but they're just too expensive, compared to what movie ticket or DVD costs - Apple (or any digital-media store that I know of, for that matter) doesn't adjust their prices to different markets (hell, they even show prices in Euros, which we don't use!) - and unless something magical happens to our economy, I doubt it'll ever take off over here.
Well, except there's lots of content not available on iTunes and friends or only with ridiculous delays. I'm just not waiting 6 months for a movie for no obvious reason when the torrent is a mouse-click away.
When there's no kindle-compatible version of an ebook I want (which sadly happens more often than not) then I grab the torrent.
It may be ignorant and "illegal", but I consider it voting with my wallet.
I can't say I feel bad about it because I happily do buy the content when and if they let me. My first stop for media is always iTunes, amazon and various local eBook sites, and I'm glad every time I don't have to resort to searching a torrent.
I'm sure I'm not the only one with that "shopping strategy".
"I'm just not waiting 6 months for a movie for no obvious reason when the torrent is a mouse-click away."
You could also try really hard and find better things to do with your time. It's just a movie, not dialysis. You won't die if you don't see it RIGHT NOW.
A few select services (Netflix, Steam, uhh that's it?) are more convenient than piracy. Piracy rate on a $1 iTunes games is often 50 to 90 percent. It doesn't get any cheaper or easier than that.