Of course it was an obvious thing. but any idiot who brought it up, would get shot down with "you can't just charge someone's card because they clicked a button"
That doesn't mean it wasn't obvious.

But there is, inventions must be Adequately described or enabled (for one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention) and Claimed by the inventor in clear and definite terms.

Every single patent that falls into this category should NOT receive a patent.
Invention must also be:

• Adequately described or enabled (for one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention)

• Claimed by the inventor in clear and definite terms

Seems most patents today (well at least many software patents) are only readable by patent lawyers.

It wasn't common then because people didn't think consumers would want to buy something with one click. Cause you know, spending money without authorization is kind of scary. And of course now it is patented, so its not common.
But I wouldn't be surprised if the concept of "one click" didn't already exist, just not for buying something.

Where do you get that idea from? According to the government http://www.uspto.gov/inventors/patents.jsp, patents can be for an improvement to a process. Adding an eraser to a pencil is definitely an improvement, and is something new. It was also something useful. I don't see anywhere saying that it is supposed to do something new that has never ever been done before.

An awful lot of inventions came about by taking one or two common things and sticking them together. Of course part of the process is how you stick them together. I'm sure plenty of people thought about sticking an erase on the end of a pencil, but apparently this guy was the first to pull it off, and thus created something new. I don't see anything in the patent rules that says sticking a couple of common things together isn't new.
As far as one click, I don't believe it was new, in that purchasing something through one click probably already existed. But even if it didn't, it wasn't rocket science. There was nothing special about the concept of "we'll save your info, so you can just click a button to buy something." I can say that because other similar things existed at the time. But back in 1858 did erasers already exist stuck on the end of a pencil?

Well, no, it just means it was substandard. The DVD itself can be poorly written, and might not play properly. Box sets might be missing items.
There was no indication in the article that they were selling the very latest episodes.

Do you mean, when there is a demand for cheaper product? There was no indication that these DVDs weren't available anywhere else. But most likely they were cheaper than the product that is available in the store.

You are right, we can only speculate what a world without copyright would be like. But I think it would be a fairly boring place. I enjoy watch movies that were made on a $100 million dollar budget. They tend to be better than movies made on a $10,000 budget. I find it hard to believe that anyone would spend $100 million dollars making a movie in a world without copyrights. I find it hard to believe people would spend significant time and effort generating content in a world without copyright.
It seems like some people believe nothing will drastically change if we had no copyright, except that they can then freely download the music they want, and the movies they want. And that is just not going to happen.
The fact is, people are greedy. They want something, someone else generated, and they want it for free.

How does selling counterfeit goods hurt the economy? I'm sure there are lots of reasons, and probably tons of research and studies done over the years. But a few things that spring to mind. Typically counterfeit items are of low quality. The customer is purchasing something of a lower quality than they probably expect, and probably with no recourse. Sometimes the customer might expect that, but not always. Sometimes the product isn't made following the standards the real item is made, exposing the customer to health and safety issues. The original creator loses out on potential sales, possibly making it more difficult to improve on the product.
And you said it yourself, they were probably dodging the VAT, so the government loses some money as well.

Is it ok to sell counterfeit clothes and purses and watches? Ignoring the "IP" issue, selling a counterfeit item as an original is fraud. These guys weren't selling these items as "copies."
As far as your loss of control over your private property, you know if you go down to the store and purchase a DVD, you are free to sell it to someone else.
But you want to claim the bits now belong to you, and you have the right to copy them and sell them to someone else (and stopping you is somehow censorship). Well the person who created the item, had an agreement with society. He would create the item, if you let him own the copyright for a few years. If you don't honor that agreement, people might stop creating things. If you don't support copyright, then you don't support content creators. You know, the people creating the content that you WANT.

If it was me being shot... I would think, "WAY cool, what app is this and where can I get it?"

Actually WE do (we being everyone but the idiotic administrator.) The answer is NEVER.