If it wouldn't be for the scumbags running the media industry I'm sure file sharing would not have gotten as much traction as it did. Now that some of the more sordid details are becoming publicly known the public will find less and less reasons to be swung by the crocodile tears of the media industry.<p>For me the piece by Janis Ian was an eye opener, the movie or the music industry does not seem to make much difference in general when it comes to their attitude to the general public.<p>It's all about money, and it really doesn't matter whether they'll get it from you legally, by hook or by crook.<p>If I ever get into a really bad mood I'm going to set up a service where you can order hard drives with 'random' bits on them at cost.
Downloading shouldn't be illegal. It's not <i>my</i> responsibility to determine if what is sent to me is copyrighted, free, or in the public domain. There are freely available music, movies, and games on the internet. It's not absurd.