Re: "Piracy often arises when consumer demand goes unmet by legitimate supply"
@AC
Stupidity? I would say that it is more greed and that sometimes blinds them.
The current benchmark in Australia is the astonishing deal that was made between HBO and Foxtel for Season 4 of Game of Thrones.
Previously, one could get the episodes via iTunes either individually or with a season pass (which amounted, sensibly, to about the same prince as a boxed-set) and you could do so shortly after they aired in the US. It was a reasonable situation.
For season 4, HBO signed a deal with Foxtel that saw it as the exclusive outlet for timely viewing. It could not longer be purchased and streamed and if you wanted to watch it as it was airing, your only choice was Foxtel.
The problem, of course, is that if you didn't already have Foxtel, you would have to sign-up to a contract, and purchase and add-on package, in the process paying ~$160/month for a whole slew of content you don't want, just to get the one thing you do.
It was utterly unreasonable and, predictably, illegal downloading went up.
This, again predictably, resulted in Foxtel bitching and moaning to the government to toughen up the laws.