who are you talking to?
I'm a small 'content producer' who has 100% embraced digital distribution, does not employ lawyers, and does not support the RIAA, MPAA or any other government lobbying organisation.

And hey, guess what, TPB rip me off along with everyone else. Could it be that they just dont give a fuck about the effects of their actions? Lumping in TPB with some sort of anti-corporate crusade is silly. Those guys just sold out for millions, and were originally financed by a right wing millionaire called carl lundstrom.
TPB are as corporate as walmart.

I agree with you in that I strongly value freedom of speech too, I just think that TPB are the WORST cheerleaders for any free-speech cause.
The minute you lump in freedom of speech and censorship issues with torrents of The Sims and Spiderman 3, you trivialise the whole issue.

There is a whole generation of politicians who look at people defending TPB in the cause of free speech, and see just a petty excuse for virtual shoplifting.

Anyone who really believs in free speech online should distance themselves from a site based around viagra adverts and hollywood movie torrents.
TPB is (and always has been) about making money. Anything else is just PR to give them covering fire.

what 'values' are they fighting for exactly?
giving away everyone elses work for free whilst selling ad space?

no it doesn't.
downloading and sharing pirated music, then getting caught, destroying the hard drive to cover your tracks, repeatedly lying in court, changing your story several times and forgoing about a dozen offers to settle out of court when you are clearly 100% no argument totally and utterly guilty and caught red-handed gets you that.

Most people who get caught breaching copyright law have the minimal number of brain cells needed to admit guilt and pay a relatively small fine. Lets not act as cheerleaders for dumbasses who think they can wriggle out of it.

why?
to punish them for actually supporting the people who create content?
Why the hell would anyone be so petty as to do that?
You realise that when you eat, you buy food that makes money for *gasp* evil corporations!!!!

"Who is going to pay the people who take the time and effort to encode "

Wow. that sure it is a lot of effort. especially when you compare it to the apparently valueless and trivial (according to pirates) effort of actually making a movie.

"Lots of people, like Trent Reznor, for example, are making piles of money while still practically giving their music away"

its easy to make more money once you are already a millionaire.
Lemme guess, you had never heard of this guy, nor had anyone else, and he was suddenly on every media outlet straight from being a garage band that had never had the benefit of a global marketing push right?

What works for established acts does NOT work for people with no history of commercial promotion

just as long as we have established what a morally empty sand selfish person you are for freeloading off everyone else, thats fine.
I'm sure you would expect everyone else to really give a shit they day you get fined by the RIAA though...