Those are good points Leuf, and it is also important to note that failing to aggressively protect a copyright can set legal precedence for that copyright being worthless. So companies HAVE to protect their interests as much as possible or they may become worthless.
The issue I have with your "what if your boss only paid you if you liked the end result" analogy is that the musicians (the people who would be in the same position as me in your analogy) are NOT getting paid properly by their bosses either
There has been a real lack of sophistication in dealing with fans; a fundamental failure in realizing that music evokes strong feelings in SOME people. Everyone has bands and musicians that they really really enjoy. There are some bands that I own their entire catalog (even a few import titles). I will go to the store the day the cd comes out and buy it no matter what. MP3 distribution doesnt really affect the sales of those bands to me because even if I snag the mp3s when they are leaked before release, I will still buy the albums to get the cover art, the uncompressed music, and to support the band. There are probably 10-12 bands who I feel this way about.
In another category, there are a lot of bands that are recommended to me by friends or music reviews on the strength of one or two songs. I often will download one or two good songs by and band and listen to them for a while. I usually put them in folders based upon what genre the music is in. Most of the time, I don't buy the cds, but I sometimes become a real fan of a band this way too and end up picking up their stuff.
Then there are mp3s I have for entertainment value (sometimes you just wanna jam Cameo's "Word Up" really loud and laugh your ass off). I am never going to buy that cd no matter what, but the 128kb mp3 has entertainment value.
And for genres I know little about (acid jazz, trip hop, electronica) I dont have any mp3s and instead listen to shoutcast streams. Same as Cameo, I am never going to buy a cd and prefer to just listen to a variety of stuff on shoutcast streams.
So there is only ONE category of the above where there is even any validity to the theory that my music downloads are hurting the industry. And even in the music I am a "casual fan" of, there are some examples of band who have been elevated to "I buy everything by them" status.
I download a lot of music and I have over 150 CDs. My purchasing rate has gone up over the last couple years because (a) I personally have more disposable income now and (b) I feel more confident that purchases I make will be good ones because I am familiar with the bands before I buy. If you go back to say 1998 and before, my music collection has way more "one hit wonder" albums but not any more cds per year.
Of course the above discussion, no matter how valid, has no real legal meaning. If you go to most band sites, they have a policy that "sharing is ok, profiting is illegal". I wish the RIAA would take this approach and go after the cd pirates who are REALLY threatening their livelihood. That's much more difficult than harassing middle class families though.
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