Windows 7: American ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme on July 12

People have been sharing in one form or another since... well there were people to share.
Nothing is ever going to stop them.
When it was a capitol offense in France to copy certain weave and fabric patterns, people still did it.
Then they were tortured and executed in public.
It didn't stop the copying though.
It did quickly lead to quite the messy revolution though.

True, people have been making each other cds for years and tapes before that. I just hope they
don't ruin the internet as they do everything else.

The model has actually shown piracy to help record sales, no one believed it until france started the 3 strike isp disconnect thing. Record sales have reduced to the point of almost shutting down the entire industry there now.
People support stuff they like apparently. I think radiohead proved that... and they really aren't that great a band (personal opinion no bashing intended).

A certain level of what they now call 'piracy' actually does seem to be good for the market.
While it does somewhat go against commonsense.

So do most things involving people.

I'm in the same boat, I haven't pirated any software in years, i don't download movies or tv shows and I haven't downloaded a music file since the free napster went away years and years and years ago.

Yes, but they are talking about giving carte blanche in a legal sense to these companies.
They have prosecuted little old ladies that don't even own computers.
They have sent desists notices to laser printers.
I'm not quite certain just being innocent is enough to make you free of concern here.

...and that's the basis of my problem with the entire thing.

I believe with time it will go way to far. Every little logo, word phrase or anything else thay is copyrighted or liscensed. They will want to sue or shut down sites. As stated a couple posts above, I too had seen where piracy had helped sales (Sweden) I believe.

Don't forget that it actually LOWERS media prices.
Remember how expensive CDs were before "Internet piracy"?

Without "Internet piracy", the MPAA & RIAA members could charge even more ludicrous prices and people would have no option but to pay them.

Why do you think game/media/software companies want to do away with physical media?
It's not because the consumer will benefit.
It's so they can charge higher prices.

All the other "Cloud" services are also based on this model (e.g. rent your OS, rent your storage).

Those good things of humans: talent, inspiration, imagination, passion(for the most part), compassion, etc. are for the betterment of all. Those that can afford them will buy them. Those that cannot will find another way. To me there is something fundamentally ok about that. I do know there is something fundamentally wrong with one human oppressing the development of another or a group for personal profit or gain. However in our grey world it is no longer a black and white issue, is it?