[brownsfan]

Taking someone's intellectual property without compensation is thievery.

Agreed. You present the moral highground. There is no doubt that there are people who are interested in simply stealing. But, I think you are going for black and white when there actually are shades of grey involved. First: What most of us object to are the RIAA's heavy handed approach to finding abusers. Including obtaining information they have no right to have. (Big Brother?) By doing so, they have put pirates in the light of being sympathetic figures. Second: Most of us are complaining that the RIAA has missed the boat. Unable to adapt. The RIAA's response is heavy handed, and desperate. Not quite what you'd expect from someone trying to keep customers. Some aritists will sell new music through downloads at their websites. There are ways to adapt and cater to your audience, and still make lots of money. And, a good artist should be compensated. There will always be theives. Doesn't make it right. But, when you ignore where the market is headed, and treat everyone like potential thieves, this is what you end up with. Screw the RIAA, they're floundering and I like it.

[steve-b]

An astute analysis. The RIAA is like a shopkeeper who decides to deal with the shoplifting problem by hiring goons to forcibly strip-search people at random, break into houses around town to look for stolen goods, etc -- and then wonders why he doesn't get many customers any more, and why regular law-abiding people are no longer willing to come forward with anything they do happen to know about the shoplifters.