Whoa!! Easy now, before sending the hate mail on how piracy steals food from the mouths of artists' babies - hear me out! I love digital content, I own an Xtreamer XHD media player which lets me watch my digital movies and photos on my TV and listen to my music. I buy a lot music on iTunes and rather than trek to the video store  only to discover that the only thing I feel like watching from their limited catalog is out - I rent movies and TV shows as well. I seem to be in the small minority that actually gets really good uncapped ADSL speeds especially if I schedule my downloads over night.  

The only ones ripping off artist are the Music and Movie industry. You see rather than crying foul and suing people who download digital content they should embrace the new medium and evolve their business model. Will a lot of these business go under? Undoubtedly but that isn't necessarily a  bad thing consider what would have happened if the industry or association of scribes had been able to sue the makers of the printing press? 

Technology throws out antiquated business models and "Old Media" has to realise that they must adapt or die, digital distribution is here to stay and piracy is in a large part a response to a failure of the content owners and distributors to respond to the needs of their clients. People want an easy, convenient ways to get digital content. People don't wan't to pay artificially high prices that include costs that no longer apply such as production costs of physical media like CD's and jewel Cases and physical distribution. People hate DRM!!! they want to be able take their media with them across an ecosystem of multiple devices. People want to stream not own, sure I like listening to Katy Perry now but in a few months I will be over that, I dont want to clog my Hard drive with "flavour-of-the-month" artists. 

I love piracy because it is forcing old model establishments to reevaluate how they do business. In the end the artist and content owners will benefit as  a lot of the middle-men who stood between them and the consumer are eliminated. They will benefit from the ability to easily reach a much broader geographical market than they previously could. They will also benefit from the lower costs associated with producing and delivering content that technology brings about. But the real winner will be the consumer, who will be able to get what they want, when they want, how they want. And thats as it should be!