For legal protection this post is based on a dream I once had. There were way more dragons in the dream, but I have omitted them from the post in order to convey the seriousness of the issues at hand.
It's considered pretty immoral...but a huge proportion of people do it! Be it music, video, software, or any copyrighted material, a lot of people are logging on and 'stealing'. Why? Because it's easy! You get everything you're interested in delivered directly to you for free. But wait...these people are stealing...right?
In my opinion, people who are doing this are absolutely stealing! But, it isn't entirely their fault. The fact that it's an incredibly easy crime has very little to do with the extent to which people engage in piracy.
EMI have filed a legal suit against the Irish Government, in retaliation of outdated piracy law in Ireland. In a bid they have dubbed 'Operation Futile Publicity Stunt', they want the government to bring forward laws that would restrict ISP's from allowing access to sites that enable piracy.
I don't understand how this can possibly be taken seriously! I understand that if your shop is being robbed you get a better security system, but if you put a restriction on these sites, these people won't thank you by going out and buying your music! If you try take the pirate sites offline, you're going to create a new horde of active pirates, that in retaliation for your interference in their daily way of life, will take that CD they bought and share it with the world.
