I've been following this whole stuff at overclockers.com, there have been a lot of interesting articles there and I mostly agree with what he says, especially the stuff about lack of compromise, it often seems to me like both sides are little kids.
I personally don't have too much interest in this stuff; I've never downloaded an MP3 in my life, and the only music I regularly listen to is whatever my sister is playing (most of which is illegal copies from friends, though she does download MP3s a bit too).
As for tv shows and commercials, thats something harder for me to decide on. For example, my sister and I have downloaded almost the entire inuyasha series from Kazaa. On the one hand, no one is getting paid for my use of their copyrighted material... but on the other hand, there is no other way I can get this material. Most of it hasn't been dubbed yet and the fansubs are the only way I can know what the characters are saying.
And commercials.... what about when I tape a late night show and fast forward through all the commercials. Is that stealing then too? Of course not...so downloading with the commercials edited out should be fine. But you're still taking a copyrighted work and not paying anyone for it....
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