Why the free software community cares about The Pirate Bay

So what about when a group like Pirate Bay decides to start using GPL'ed software without following the GPL rules because they don't care about copyright?<p>I'm sorry, but I think music theft is about one of the lamest things you can do. If you really like music, you'll support the artists. I don't want to hear the BS line, "oh, they don't get any money from the record sales anyway." Sure, so when the record companies collapse and there's no one to distribute their albums or pay the recording costs, then what? They may not get much money DIRECTLY from record sales, but that's really not the point. If you steal music, you are completely and utterly useless to the music community, and it would be better off without you. You are a short-sighted mooch, and you're just bringing people down for your own temporary benefit.

I strongly disagree with the premise of this article.<p>There is a major difference between free software, which obeys and even relies on copyright to enforce its rules, and this generalized pirate movement which wants the right to copy anything, anytime, freely.

If you're going to opine about the virtues of the public commons, then why not support artists who produce copyright free content? There are plenty out there. The hypocrisy of the pirate movement is seen when the lion's share of the content they consume is the high-budget stuff produced in big studios. This is in stark contrast to the free software community, in which genuinely free software is used far more than pirated commercial software.<p>Content pirates are parasites that are killing their host. They take and offer nothing in return. They certainly don't add the magnitude of value to the world that is offered by the free software movement.

In a war of large corporations with nearly-unlimited resources against someone who just wants to listen to some music, I'll take the someone who just wants to listen to some music every time.<p>I'm a fan of the underdog, especially one who's had progressively more power removed from their bailiwick -- fair use? Almost gone. Time-shifting? They'd take that away if they could. DMCA? What a travesty.<p>Time the balance shifts the other way for a while.

This article, IMO, exemplifies a lack of understanding by members of the free software community. You can't say "The international free software movement has decisively placed themselves in opposition to laws which restrict information freedom by prioritizing intellectual property and the ownership of information by corporations over the civil right to information and software." while supporting licenses like the GPL which depend solely on copyright law to restrict the way software is distributed.