I just love how you people try to reframe artist's being robbed of their rights and compensation as efforts to control "art, beauty, and knowledge", as if invoking such concepts and painting yourselves to be some sort of freedom fighters changes the fact that all you are doing and all you are fighting for is being able to take things you didn't make for free. It's disrespectful, it's illegal, and no matter how much you want to hurt the middllemen at fault for some real buses, it's harmful to the artists.

"the government stepping in to enforce a business model" You just decribed civilization. If you don't like it, you don't get to opt out AND get the fruits of it for free.

Your property rights? What do you call something I made with my own brain and body? If you aren't willing to make the "exchange", then don't buy it. You do not have a divine right to creative works just by virtue of existing. I can't believe this type of extremism is so widespread.

Your collectivism is kind of scary.