I still enjoy the cinema experience and i'm happy to pay entry to watch a good movie on a big screen with popcorn.

The music and movie industry need to provide economical download services offering quality files encoded in open formats that consumers can play on any device(s) of their choosing.

Once the legal download services represent a viable alternative (in cost and service terms) to the so called "illegal" ones studios will see their profitabilty increase massively oweing to the global economies of scale the internet enables.

Steve Edwards, Telford, Shropshire

If I could download a new movie, at say £6 (the same as going to the cinema), from a decent server, I would be happy to pay. After all, I'm paying for the recordable DVD and the electricity, and a fancy case if I want one. However, this facility doesn't exist. So I either have to pay shop prices or download illegally. If I download illegally, the chances of me getting caught and punished are minute and the maker of the film gets nothing. Make it available for a reasonable price and we both come out on top.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

1) The APIs which MS published last week have always been readily available to registered MSDN members. The only change here is the conditions under which they are being published.

2) All of the "free IP" models fund the creators of IP through subsidy, whether it's through advertising (resulting in irritated customers and higher prices for the advertised goods in the shops), or paying for stuff which really should be free, such as customer support (the conflict of interest when this model is applied to software, such as Linux or GNU is so blindingly obvious I won't labour the point). I've never known subsidy (except in the special case we know as "patronage") be anything but bad news for consumers.

Plumbers, bricklayers, chefs - all are entitled to a fair days pay for a fair days labour. What's wrong with those who labour to create IP?

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

I would have expected the head of a think tank to know it's not actually a Green Paper, but a positioning paper, and that it has not yet been published.

Martin Bunger, Coventry, UK

Having the internet providers take responsibility for people breaking the law is like asking Ford to take responsibility every time one of their cars breaks the speed limit.

Gordon, Glasgow,

A lot of computer software users go buy pirated copies of software just to say they have the latest version and may only use the most basic functions of that high end software, if they had to pay for it they would buy lower spec systems with very basic free packages on them, many users have found the advantages of high end software and encouraged their employers to purchase the product to improve productivity, I know this as I lent my MS Office to a manager of a company in the days of v4, we designed layouts to fill in forms on computer then print on dot matrix printers instead of typewriters, the multi millionaire owner was so impressed that every computer in all his busineses had licensed copies of Windows and MS Office and I helped them keep track of all pakage licenses to keep everything legal, I also introduced many more businesses to this type of software who also used licensed versions. I also introduced several firms to tape backup drives and sortware, it was only my hobby.

Contax, Brigg, UK

Time will tell whether MS are actually embracing openess or laying down some kind of "trap" - given their history, including attempts to scupper Linux through indirect ownership of code involved in UNIX, I would not trust them farther than I could throw them.

The film industry will do the same as the CD industry and not embrace the new technology until forced to do so - and who can blame them - which CEO wants to be first to tell shareholders that you have to give stuff away, when the current model still produces good profits even with the pirates (and allows them to blame the pirates if the figures are not good) ?

Andy Ralphs, New Plymouth, New Zealand