Thing is, Donny, take a look at that list of genres I mentioned. Do you do ANY of them? How big is your zydeco repertoire? Do ANY ska-punk? LOL

While what YOU do seems to be very well covered by the available styles, there are MANY of us that find huge gaps in the available pro quality styles, or find what IS available to be less than stellar in authenticity. And, let's face it... how many of us have EVER created a truly ROM quality style all by ourselves? User created styles are, on the whole a pretty rough bunch compared to the quality that you find in the ROM. It is nowhere NEAR as easy as you seem to think (have you ever truly tried?).

But the guys that make the ROM styles for the Majors... well, they are pretty much sitting around on their duff for usually at least a year or more (two or three for TOTL arrangers). Now, if they could make 100% of the money for selling styles, instead of the pittance they get because of file sharing, don't you think they would be churning them out like hotcakes? After all, how many TOTALLY new styles do you usually get in a new arranger? 10%? 15%? Two or three YEARS just to make a handful? These guys got time on their hands!

Protected files would allow them to work 24/7 and actually make a living.

Abacus, sorry, but if you buy a style and give a copy to a friend, you are NOT 'giving what you paid for away'. If you no longer USED the style, and gave or sold it to a friend, then OK... But to KEEP the style AND give it away robs the creator of a sale. The thinking like this is what has made the whole problem in the first place. When a piece of SOFTWARE is sold to you, it is sold for YOU to use. Not you, and your 10,000 closest friends..!