not really man, stealing 100$ is not the same as stealing 1$ "looking at it that way" and that cant be compared to filesharing neither. see you can download the file unlimited many times, take one away from infinity you will find u still got a infinity. re-read my comment, your not catching the drift
How is it not comparable? My point was that paper in itself has very little value, but the value we as people put on it is what makes it worth something. There is no global organization who decides what something costs. People decide (the market decides). So if the market decides a piece of info or data (or music) is worth a certain amount of money, then it is. The only problem is you can take information without paying for it and not get caught, whereas if you walked into a supermarket and took a bunch of food and walked out the doors, a cop would be right after you.
If walmart wanted to sell tv's for 2 bux a pop, they could. They would just lose money, so they don't. If they did that, does that mean those tv's are worth 2 dollars? Does that mean stealing that TV is different then stealing the same TV for 100 bux at the radioshack next door? Questions questions.
When you buy a file, you are not buying the download. You are buying the rights to the file to use it (within legal limits).
When you buy a car, it is yours. However, if you invented a car, and some dude comes along, breaks your car down and copies your invention, only to make one for himself for free, you'd be kinda pissed. After all, you spent all that time inventing, testing, and perfecting it, and all he had to do was buy the parts. He didn't even ask.
Also, I'm fairly sure that if all you had to do was buy an apple from a store, and then from that point on you could distribute them at will to anyone, it would be a different story. There would be just as much freaking out about that situation. Farmers would go out of business. Skilled workers would lose their jobs. What do you think is happening with music?