That's if you're downloading from Britney Spears.  As if I would listen to pretty much anybody on the top 40 list. I prefer classic rock from the 60s, 70s, also 80s music. And then also classical music. I like some new artists...but not as much as older artists.

So I don't really care about the music industry...pop artists can get degraded from their level 3 private jets down to a level 2 private jet, I don't care. Except smaller artists like classical quartets, orchestras, and unknown artists really do need money to become successes. Not to mention it's hard to find obscure artists or ensembles on any sort of P2P network.

And as I've stated on various pirating threads, my level of importance is Music < Movies < Games.

I think it's bad to pirate music...but hey, everybody does it, and new music is still being made. It's bad for smaller artists though, definitely.

I think it's bad to pirate movies...though movie companies certainly do get a lot of money still. But sometimes DVD sales really do make the difference between a sequel or no sequel.

I think it's the worst to pirate games...because sometimes 100k of sales can easily tip a success or failure...money is really tight in development budgets, and if a game got pirated enough, it could be very bad for an independent or new developer. Development teams get shut down just making a game that sells bad. Luckily game piracy is still small compared to movies and music.

 Wait, you're putting me on a guilt trip by bring Darfur and terrorism into this?  Yeah those are worse...that doesn't make piracy OK.

 Hating big companies for all the wrong they do and money they like to grab with their greedy fingers does not make stealing OK. 

I'm not a hypocrit...I just accept that it is wrong to take music and movies without paying. 

It's not just stars who are being hurt by piracy. 

The legality of file sharing also depends on where you live. Nobody's ever been charged with illegal downloading in Canada, because we have a levy on blank media. The law is flawed because it assumes that all media will be used for duplicating copyrighted material, when it's often being used for personal data duplication.

The legal waters are murky enough that CRIA (our version of RIAA, except I'm not sure if they actually represent any Canadian artists any more) hasn't had the guts to take anybody to court over file sharing. They're terrified that they would lose, set precedent, and open the floodgates. So all they do is act menacing and bribe the crap out of politicians to get more favourable laws.

If I said that I "really don't even care about the ethics" of whether people download or not, how could I  be putting someone on a guilt trip?  I think that you misunderstand what I was saying.  I was saying that these actions are morally insignificant (even if downloading should be judged to be wrong) when compared to other many other issues.  I think that when you look at what I said, we are actually agreeing a lot more you might beleive.

good view. To the pirate = NO DOUPFOR YOU!

Ignorantio elenchi. There are many immoral and illegal acts that look "insignificant" when compared to murder. That does make such acts any less wrong. The two issues are entirely separate, and the fact that theft is not as heinous as murder does not mean that theft should be dismissed. 

In Canada, the RIAA/MPAA gets some kind of tax off blank media. So, all music is free in Canada. Only that, I am not much of a fan of music. I used to listen to music years ago, when it was actually good music.

True.  Wrt downloading, everybody does it.  Also,  as I mentioned previously, downloading is going to happen, whether we like it or not.  The practical thing to do is for the music industry to adapt so that this won't hurt their business.  If they can't do that then I'm not for protection of any kind for the music industry.