Sometimes it’s really hard to make heads or tails of the copyright wars.

The record labels claim that as long as people can download files illegally with impunity, they have no reason to pay for it and this could drive the industry under. This makes sense because, well, why pay for something when you can get it for free? It used to be that you bought a CD cause you wanted something physical and it was already fully capable of playing in a CD player. Now, though, MP3-playing CD players are commonplace and CD burning hardware and media are so cheap that the gap has not only closed, but MP3s have become more convenient.

On the other hand, you have consumers that used to argue that they used Napster because there was no legal way to get the music in MP3 format. If they wanted just one song, they’d have to buy the entire CD and if they wanted an MP3 they would have to rip it themselves (often using software that cost money) if they could. If the music labels would just offer what the download sites are offering for free, they would gladly pay. Of course, eMusic offered that, but that didn’t count because nobody heard of most of their artists. Then they could listen to the artists that they’d heard before on iTunes, but that didn’t count because it was DRMed. But now that’s not even the case.

A recent survey and sales figures from the British Phonographic Industry shows that both of these defenses are flawed, at least across the pond. Despite the extraordinary availability of legal downloads and legal access to music, about one in three customers are still downloading music illegally. Despite this, digital music sales are soaring.

So on one hand, clearly even in an environment where people can download music without much fear of getting caught, a lot of people are still happy to pay for it. Stripping the music files of DRM didn’t even seem to hurt as much as predicted. Of course, the music industry is still trying to put up barriers and it’s possible that it’s those barriers that are preventing people from illegally downloading all of their music. Thus, if they stopped trying and illegal filesharing became more socially normalized than it already is that sales would take a tumble. As much as we consumers would love to say “That won’t happen!” or “You can make up the money elsewhere!”, we’re not the ones betting our livelihood on this idea.

On the other hand, the ethical arguments in favor of filesharing are diminishing on a pretty annual basis. The music is available. A wide variety of music is available to sample if you want to try before you buy (in limited quantities for free or unlimited quantities for $5/mo). DRM is no longer required. Monthly subscriptions give you access to millions of songs to sample or listen to around the house. The only excuse left, really, is that they cost too much. That’s not entirely an excuse, though. Record labels are stuck into an old way of thinking wherein the purchase of each song ought to be a moneymaker. I really do find it likely that if they sold songs for a quarter a piece, people would believe that they’re getting a better value and ultimately would end up spending more money.

Increasingly, I don’t have a dog in this hunt anymore. If all of the record labels went out of business tomorrow, I would be okay. Musicians will still be musicians. I’d have to look harder for new bands, but in Colosse about 90% of what I was buying was from unsigned acts. On the other hand, if the record industry ever actually found a way to prevent piracy… well, Rhapsody is already the recipient of the lion’s share of my music entertainment budget and the rest I buy from independent MP3 retail sites. The main way that I could lose is if the record labels were to eliminate piracy and then turn around and prevent people from buying music. But even then, boycotting them would be the easiest thing in the world to do. I guess I could also lose if the record labels all went out of business but they (or some other organization) still managed to prevent artists from creating alternative markets for their product. I find that extremely unlikely.

That college costs now more than ever is a much-discussed topic. There are a lot of reasons for this. The student loan industry increasing demand, for instance, and larger and larger segments of the job market requiring degrees for positions even when the nature of the position does not necessarily warrant it. People can spend $50-100k just to jump through some hoops just so that they can tell potential employers that they jumped through some hoops. Budget-strapped states also often find that they have less money laying around that they can kick in to reduce tuition.

One of the causes of the rising tide of expense, though, is that the goalposts of “the college experience” are ever-moving.

When I was attending Southern Tech University, there were basically three sets of dorms.

• The Old Houses (aka the Polyhedron) was a group of old, smaller dormitories with suites that share bathrooms reserved primarily for honors students and athletes.
• The Sauron Center was two towers with significantly smaller rooms and hall bathrooms.
• Lastly, there was Sotech Plaza, apartment-style dorms intended primarily for graduate students.
• There was a fourth set called Southern Pines, much like Sotech Plaza, but the cash-strapped university handed it over to private developers.

When I was a student, the plan was to expand the Sauron Towers from two to four. The University made it a priority to get more students living on campus and the Towers were very space-efficient as far as that goes. While I was attending, the plan shifted to adding only one tower, then two short towers, then scotched altogether.

Since then, they’ve been adding more and more dormitories at the upper end of things to accompany the Pines and the Plaza. Cynics believe that they are doing this because this type of housing brings in the most revenue. Boosters say that in order to attract the best students you have to have the nicest facilities. If a student has the option of staying at Sauron North or some posh digs at Delosa Western University, they’re going to choose the latter. And if they’re looking primarily to save money, they’re not necessarily the students that the university is most enthusiastic about anyway.

But what seems clear is that among middle class parents, for all of the complaints about the rising costs of college, a whole lot of them want these nicer dorms. They want their kids to go to the school with the extravagant football program and the super-duper fitness center. In short, a lot of parents are paying more for college because they want the kinds of things that extra money buys.

This, of course, leads to an arms race for these students. Southern Tech wants to compete with the University of Delosa for students. Delosa Polytechnic wants to compete with Southern Tech for students while Sotech absolutely, positively does not want to be lumped with Del Poly. Before parents know it, their options are to send their kid to a university with aspirations (and the expenses that come along with it) or resign themselves to sending their kid to colleges without the profiles that these schools have. Southern Tech University East (“Stuie“) is a very affordable college in the Southern Tech system, but a degree from Stuie won’t carry as much weight and you’re less likely to meet the kinds of people there that are going to help your career.

I’m not sure what can be done about this. Some suggest that curbing the availability of student loans would be a start. I’m not positive that will help all that much, though. Most of the people driving these costs upwards are the ones that can afford to go to college without the student loans. The result would be that college would become less affordable, which on one hand may be a good thing for would-be Comparative Folk Dancing majors and people without the intelligence or wherewithal to graduate, but would be a bad thing for those that are trying to move up the economic ladder and have the talent and drive to do so.

Inspiration: Are Pricey Dorms 10 Times Better? Housing options offer the easiest way to cut college costs (USN&WR)

In an update on the story of Clint and Margaret, the breakup went surprisingly smoothly. After I left and Margaret returned, she announced that he needed to find a new place to stay while they try to repair things. He stayed in an extended stay motel for a couple weeks and then landed into a really sweet in-law suite in the suburbs of Shaston. Predictably, it did not take long for him to be more officially partnered up with Kirby.

There are a few aspects of this uncoupling worthy of discussion, but today I am going to focus on a romantic partner as an individual and a romantic partner as an office.

Clint stopped by and picked up the remainder of his stuff from their old apartment the other day. He couldn’t help but notice an engagement ring on her left hand. It wasn’t just an engagement ring, but it was the exact one that she had been needling him to buy her. Further, as he looked around the apartment, he couldn’t help but notice how much everything was the same. Where his XBox used to be, the new guy’s was. Where his Playstation was, the new guy’s was. Where pictures of Margaret and Clint used to be were pictures of Margaret and the new guy.

The fact that there was a new guy was not a surprise. Shortly after they part ways and it became bleedingly apparent that reconciliation was not going to happen, she met some dude online who was living in, of all places, Delosa. He was a military man whose contract with the government was set to expire and who was already interested in relocating to Shaston, where he was raised. Notably, they’ve met maybe a half-dozen times.

That some guy picked up right where Clint left off is really unsurprising. What became apparent in the latter days of their relationship was how much Margaret wanted Clint to be someone that he wasn’t. It’s not that she didn’t love Clint, but she was just as infatuated with the idea of finding that person and having the romantic proposal and playing house with the adult life and all of that.

It’s not entirely correct that she would have taken anybody to fill that roll, but it is correct to say that the willingness and ability to play that roll (a role which Clint was, in the end, ill-suited for) was perhaps the most important thing a guy had to offer. She barely knows the guy, but then again I’m not sure the degree to which she has to.

It’s not all that unlike how after my breakup with Julianne, she was living with Tony within three months. Tony had a vacancy in his life, a wife that he had been forced to leave. She had a vacancy in hers, a Trumwill that had left her. And unlike me, Tony was willing to take things to the next level of cohabitation. It was a perfect (unmarried) marriage of convenience. It took Tony four years to realize that she was a person playing a part and that, no, that really wasn’t enough for him. It was enough for her until the very end, though.

It’s impossible to say whether Margaret and her new guy will work out. But it’s part of a real phenomenon that I’ve noticed as I get older. Everybody wants that great, special person in theory. In practice, though, people often gravitate towards finding someone willing to meet certain benchmarks and then will fall in love with them. That’s what I mean by “love as an office”. It’s sort of a professional relationship.

Maybe for a lot of people, that’s the best kind. There’s certainly something to be said for settling with someone that shares your values and priorities over someone that doesn’t but makes your heart flutter. And as I’ve come to realize that I’m just not like most people, maybe my own neurotic and existential needs simply don’t apply to the people that really don’t spend all that much time thinking about things.

When I look back at my time with Julie, I still see her as the perfect candidate for the job that I was looking to bring her on for. The loving, devoted wife. Pretty in a wifely sort of way. Willing to indulge my interests and willing to bend to my preferences whenever she could. But that wasn’t enough for me. One of the hardest things I had to learn was that there needed to me something – something – more. I still can’t entirely define what.

Of course, on the other end of the spectrum was Evangeline who had that something but who was extraordinarily ill-fitted to be my partner in the respectable family I was looking to start.

Things often have a way of working out in the end. I found Clancy, who is both a well-suited partner and someone that has that ethereal quality that Julie lacked. Evangeline found a guy that was happy to live the sort of life beyond the guard rails where I was never comfortable. I don’t know if Clint and Kirby are going to work out, but I’ve spent time with her and like her a great deal. If Clint is consigned to a life of debt and relative squalor but also a life on his own terms, he could do a lot worse than her. The jury is still out on Margaret, but her new guy seems to offer her the sort of life that she wants. Julie and Tony… well not everything works out for everyone.

What do you guys think? Do you think that these sort of vacancy marriages can work? Where you just find someone with whom you are compatible and disregard everything else? Or do you see relationships like Margaret and The Officer as being a sort of rebound thing that is inherently weak and due to rupture unless it turns out that they really just correctly determined that they were perfect for one another within a few months and a couple visits?