That's a trickier issue (to me, anyway. The whole thing seems pretty black and white to you, I gather).?
Not at all. I think the issue is very difficult.
The technology is such that I think we're not just talking about "possible lost opportunity costs" but almost certain lost opportunity costs. I.e., potentially thousands of people downloading music that they WOULD otherwise have purchased. Some might not have. It's impossible to quantify, but I do think there is harm here to the record companies (loathsome though they are) and the artists.
Well, I agree that those who would have otherwise purchased the music are causing harm and are doing something wrong. But what I am arguing is that those who would not have otherwise purchased the music are not causing any harm by their actions and are not doing anything wrong. This is applicable to Neuro's situation if he would not otherwise be paying for cable, and to my movie situation if you ignore the question of trespassing for the sake of the argument.
And by the way, the profits made by the record companies on cd sales are an extremely small fraction of the total cost. The largest fraction of the purchase price goes to the retailer.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
