The Free Zone Board

[Spallenzani]

Well, here is the problem with your argument. You seem to be implying that someone who sells intellectual property for a living is entitled to that money to sustain himself

Uh, yeah. What exactly is the problem with that?

The problem is that no one who does anything for a living is entitled to a living. Only if people willingly pay him for his services is he entitled to a living.

If you can't sell your songs because people who would otherwise buy them are downloading mass quantities of them illegally, that's a problem for society.

Agreed, but remember that we are only talking about the people that would not otherwise buy them.

And is cable service significantly different from intellectual property?

I would say yes. If you steal cable service you're not just stealing an idea or a song. You're actually using the cable company's property.

I'm not entirely familiar with the way cable signals are transferred, but my guess would be that the electricity charge for one additional user is not even recognizable.