Do you believe self regulation is more or less effective than governmental regulatory agencies?

In my opinion, I believe that self regulation is much more effective than government regulation. Although government regulations will affect societal mindsets I believe that in some cases they may create the opposite of their intended effect. As with illegal music downloading, I feel that the news of pending strict repercussions on illegal downloads caused a surge of such downloads right before the article took affect, since people realize that they will face a greater chance of legal side effects once the regulations take effect. However if there was more of a focus on why the regulations are being created, as to who in particular these acts effect, the act itself would begin to diminish. In other words if the effort placed in creating regulations was centered on spreading awareness on the issue at hand, there would be not only less of the harmful activity, but in addition the public would be informed as to why the particular behavior was bad. If the public understood how illegal downloading of music and movies effected the creators of this media, they may be more inclined to cease or at least limit this habit; more so than with regulatory prosecution where one particular individual is singled out for their downloading offenses and presented with an array of harsh charges simply to set them up as an example.

Do you believe that the government has regulated an area in particular too harshly?