We do make the definitions. Definitions change every day. In fact, the definition of piracy to which you refer is relatively new and was coined by the industry when claiming to be a victim. They were making an analogy of copyright infringement to the original definition of the word piracy, which is “an act of robbery on the high seas”, and they did it so many times that it stuck... not unlike the word SPAM.

However, back in the day, there was this thing called Fair Use that protected the purchaser from the industries allegations (e.g. to make backup copies, share with a friend, etc.). Whatever happened to Fair Use? I think it still exists, but I’m not sure. I guess if you say something it wrong enough times, people (or the courts) start to believe it.

My point, which you may have ascertained by reading the last post in its entirety, was that I download, but it is to the benefit of the industry when I do. I am a very good customer (over 700 DVDs/Blu-rays and over 2000 CDs) that the RIAA/MPAA is doing everything in their power to chase off.

It depends on the definition of "piracy". I agree with the comment above "I oppose the use of the term "piracy" to refer to copyright infringement". To me, "piracy" means stealing and reselling, thereby profiting off of the steal.

I often download copies of media that I have already purchased. Example 1, when there is a song on a CD that I own that I want on my mp3 player. I could go through the pain of ripping it myself, or download it in less time than it takes me to retrieve the CD from my collection. Example 2, I have a DVD/Blu-ray collection of over 700 movies. I have a server in my bedroom where I've downloaded over 400 of these movies (~700MB ea). The server is connected to my LCD TV/Monitor in my bedroom and I can watch any of these 400 movies, which I already own, just by scrolling down the list and pressing enter. This works as a backup and for convenience (also once every 6 months or so I backup the hard drive to an external drive and store it at my Dad's house).

I also "try-before-I-buy", especially for my wife and her music. She will hear a song or a group and ask me to download some more from that group. If she likes it, we buy it, mainly because we feel the artist should be paid for their work. If we could send the money straight to the artist and skip the rest of the music industry, I'm sure we would. I'm tired of being called a criminal by them as I feel I paid for the stuff for which I consider worth paying (sorry RIAA if you'd rather me buy the whole album to find that only two songs are any good).

The only time I share files is if they are free to begin with, if I feel the band should be promoted (e.g. "You've got to hear these guys; they're sound is fantastic"), and when I am in the process of downloading on a peer network (yes, that makes me a leach, sorry, but I'm trying not to be a "pirate"). I’m sure I "am" a Pirate in the small minds of the RIAA/MPAA, but I just consider myself a good customer.

Wow! You just described "a major telecommunications company" at which I may have worked . It's like you were going down their checklist. Oh yeah, you left off "Faster-Cheaper-Better"... (we modified this one to say "Faster-Cheaper-Better. Pick two.").

You don't get it, do you? People want what they have to work. They don't want to have to run out and buy replacement hardware for that which won't work with Linux. Let alone shelving perfectly good hardware that was working fine the day before on windows.

On one of my two Linux machines, I never was able to get the wireless adaptor to work, but I had already wasted two weeks trying. However, instead of running out and buying a replacement adaptor, I decided to avoid a potential new hardware issue and buy a wireless bridge instead ($89)... ironically, the same cost as XP Home (Personally if I were buying XP I'd get Pro over Home, but I hope you see the point). Someone first stepping into Linux (a newbie) would either return to the windows that they already had or buy a new copy, if for a new machine, rather than throw out a perfectly good wireless adaptor.

And for those of you who believe that the wireless issues are all solved, my last issue was only about a year ago using a USB wireless adaptor. And with all the people bringing it up, I suspect that things may not be as good as you had hoped. Also, most of my friends, like myself, first moved to Linux on an older machine to test the waters, so-to-speak. And if that went bad, out of the water they came.