A Pirate is a Pirate is a Pirate

It's an unpopular view in cyberspace, but David Lawrence lays down the law:

Music and movie piracy, identity theft, credit card hacking, software cracking, and other activities are being promoted as "security assessment" and "the unavoidable new way of doing business" and other "helpful" acts. That's pure rationalization.

Yes, it is. It's amazing how many educated and otherwise ethical people justify piracy with lame arguments to get around the fact that sharing copyrighted material is illegal and immoral. There is no moral distinction between going into a store to shoplift a DVD, CD, or game and downloading a movie, album, or game from the Internet. This is not about free speech, nor is it a heroic struggle between the David music listener and the Goliath music industry; it's about stealing, plain and simple.