Oh man, where to start!??
First off, David and KlvinoHRGA, I respect both your opinions but I am forced to disagree with you both, adamently.
I'll start of with David
Taxing/increasing the price of recording software, hardware and media will not stop piracy. Most piracy does not require those things at all, as others have mentioned. The only thing this
might stop is the people on the streetcorners selling bootlegged material. Might. At the cost of every single person who wants to back up information from their computer to a safe location.
Lets say I have a couple kids, and I love videotaping them. Or even my cats. I love cats, maybe I have a lot of video of them. This video quickly eats up hard drive space, so I want to back it up. But why should I have to pay $200-250 for the burner plus the expenses of the media to record it on? Because it's assumed that if I use those things, that I'm a pirate? Do I deserve that? Do we in a free society assume guilt before innocence? No, that is not the solution. People making legitimate backups should not be punished, when those people are in the vast majority over the people who use such devices to pirate. It'd be like hugely increasing the price of electricity, just to try and cut down on the marijuana grow-ops!!
Anything that I wanted to pirate would not require burners, blank media, etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm no pirate. I earn the money to buy the things I want. But there's no need for all the hardware.
Now, KlvinoHRGA
My opinion.
On your point #1, I have no opinion.
Point #2, well you'd be excluding a lot of Canada right there. Huge areas of Canada only have PO boxes. Not to mention the fact that you'd have to get international cooperation on things like this, which, practically, would not happpen.
Point #3, no opinion.
Point #4....here's where I vehemently disagree with you. Holding people liable for the way their products are used is, in my own opinion, the worst thing that could possibly be done. Think of what it would open the door to. People would want to hold Ford responsible for making the car that someone ran down and killed someone in. Gun manufacturers could be held responsible if one of their guns was used in a crime. The software that is used in piracy has many legit uses. Our legal systems are not predicated on the "guilty until proven innocent" idea. People can not be held responsible for the actions of others, that would be just another extension of the rampant feeling nowadays that it's someone elses fault that I did something wrong. There's already too much of that.
Point #5, go for it. Don't think it'd work, but it wouldn't hurt legitimate consumers.
Point #6, sure. But you'd have to define the term "piracy" much better. People who download the pirated copies, or people who crack and create and distribute the illegal copies? But if you mean the people who 'just' download the illegal copies...well if you don't even go to prison for multiple car thefts, why would you go to prison for a $40 theft? You sure don't if you shoplift that much!
Point #7, seems a little overboard. If you already implemented #6 and that didn't stop them, no database will stop them.
That's about it for me. My main point is this; just don't punish the multiple legitimate users that exist for every one illegit user. Don't presume everyone is guilty, or make everyone suffer monetarily.