the majority of people in the UK are concerned about the economy, the environment, antisocial behaviour, crime and international issues such as the war in Afghanistan, which has now claimed 200 lives.
Defending the right of teenagers to help themselves to free music is not, nor should it be, the prime factor that motivates any sane individual to make their one democratic choice every five years.

"What ever happened to the notion that money is not valuable in and of itself, but only as a means to the ends we choose?"

explain to my landlord why money isn't important, and ill be happy to reverse my position on copyright.
People who make a living from creating digitally encodable products actually have the same bills to pay as everyone else.

I'm a technically literate brit, but amazingly, its my opinion that people who are serial downloaders of copyrighted material are
a) breaking the law
b) free loading off honest people who pay for stuff and thus enable it to get made in the first place.

I frankly don't give a fuck if people who are caught illegally downloading copyrighted material are caught, identified and prosecuted, just as I don't give a fuck if people who break the speed limit or get caught driving without insurance get prosecuted for that.

What next? having speed cameras or letting the police check your insurance details at random is 'an invasion of privacy!!!'

Nothing is more insulting that equating being technically literate with 'defending the anonymity of internet pirates'.
What is this? digg? torrentfreak? or 'newsforpirates'?

if your address is west wallaby street, the brick would probably revolve and then go down 100 feet on pistons and deposit the key in a thunderbirds-style underground chamber beneath the swimming pool.

A fantastic post, I couldn't agree more, but sadly it shows the mentality of the kids here that you arent even modded up :(

hahaha the little kiddies have modded me troll. It must be so sad to be unable to bare to even read stuff you don't agree with eh kiddies?
Now tidy your rooms.

if the hitman went to court and stood there and admitted it, then yup, I think he should be found guilty. don't you?

No it isn't. I work in the free market. Nobody prevents me making games, selling them, promoting them, advertising them, changing my business model or charging any amount in any currency.
Explain to em why the free market I work in and sue every day of my life is somehow a 'fiction'?

There are places where the free market doesn't work and is abused. music, Movies and games are not one of them, although the anti-copyright zealots like to kid themselves that it is, so they can justify theft.

oh really?
So where do I stand? I am a 'person' but I also own my own company. So am I evil or not?

This bullshit that COMPANIES ARE EVIL and that they are some foreign entity that are not owned by, employ and benefit people is just silliness beyond words.

Maybe the poster should have said 'the people who own, work for and are employed by companies will stop producing'. Would that be clearer?

Too much of this pirate-party crap is schoolboy teenage 'sticking it to the man' philosophy that implies everyone older than 20 who has got a job has sold out. I'm sure it seems romantic to fight against capitalism and show the rich jerks who run the country how it should be done when you are 18 years old.

later when you need to buy a house and pay bills, and earn money, you will find that companies are not 'evil', they are just a vehicle by which means people participate in the free market.

"hint: you can't sing "Happy Birthday" in the UK without paying a license fee)"

Total and utter BULLSHIT.

But I guess it helps to have such bullshit stories floating around if its the only way a political party can anyone to listen to their whacked-out views...