

Imagine for a moment the handbag industry adopting the same business model as Hollywood and the record labels.

The Handbag Industry Association of America would launch an aggressive litigation campaign, suing thousands of women for sharing their handbags. That policy would mirror the campaigns of the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America.

Often, handbags would frustrate owners under the HIAA's Handbags Rights Management scheme.

For starters, handbags would only work in one country. All of a handbag's contents would fall from the bottom at a border crossing, or while on an international flight, under the industry's HRM standards.

This HRM tool, like DRM on digital music files and DVDs, would only allow the purse to be worn with a single outfit. The handbag would not function with a different outfit, thus requiring another purchase of the same handbag if a change of clothes was in order.

"Own only one handbag, then be prepared to wear the same outfit day in and day out," according to a parody at bagbunch.com, an internet handbag store.

The Handbag Industry Association of America's website would be filled with misleading facts and figures about piracy. The site would also encourage its customers not to purchase knockoffs, because that finances terrorism and the drug trade.

The website would also warn its customers that it was illegal to throw away handbags.