[skylervm]

Someone needs to be paid to be able to continue producing the things you enjoy. Otherwise they stop getting made. So before I get any further, I think artists, developers, etc. need to be compensated for their work. It should be illegal to copy someone else's digital goods and sell them for a profit (ie. copying a cd whether you paid for the original or not and reselling it). That doesn't mean I think copyright holders need to be compensated in the same way they have in the past. We're in the midst of trying to figure out how exactly to do that. Louis CK's movie, Radiohead's In Rainbows, Kickstarter... they're all examples of people trying to figure out how this all works moving forward. Some of it works, some of it doesn't. Eventually, we'll figure out a system that does.

We're going through a cultural shift in the way we obtain information. We forget that buying and individually owning books, movies, music, etc. is a relatively new thing and wasn't always the norm. But because there are entire industries built around these things, organizations like the RIAA and the MPAA have an obvious interest in keeping things they way they are.

People should be allowed to share as they want without repercussion. Some people will pay for things, others won't and some can't even if they wanted to. That's never going to change no matter how many laws are passed trying to stop it. People shouldn't be denied access to materials just because they didn't or can't pay for them.

Libraries are essentially what the internet has become except on a much smaller scale. One person / institution / organization buys all the books, cds, movies, etc. and lends them to others for free. Some will argue the differences is there are a limited number of copies that can be lent out at any one time. And while that's true, it's irrelevant. Just because that's the way things have been doesn't mean that's the way they need to be. As more libraries expand their digital content, the lines between our views on libraries, piracy and the sharing of information will become increasingly blurred.

We're living in a time when people have access to information like never before. People are being exposed to music, books and films they never would have before. We're learning things we never would have been able to 10 years ago. Walls and barriers to learning and education are being torn down. Those are all good things that we should be celebrating, not trying to destroy.