The other day, I saw a a young music student on a train copying by pencil a musical score. I (and everyone else there) should have dialed 911, according to the sanctimonious Church Ladies here. She was stealing, like musicians have done for centuries. Along the same line of thought, if you listen to a concert outside a concert hall without paying for a ticket, you too are stealing. Borrow a friend's LP, listen to it, and you're a despicable thief. Oh well, according to a well worn anecdote, some primitive tribes on primitive continents (if we're allowed to use such words) think you're stealing their souls when you snap their picture. The notion of stealing when downlading zeroes and ones is in the same category, me thinks, but hey, what do I know?! And while we're at it, assuming a pious position while on a high horse is quite a trick, I'd say! The Ringling Brothers might even be interested!
There are many lucid, well-reasoned posts on this thread. Yours is not one of them.
Please fill us in. What are your credentials that allow you to "get it" while those of us who disagree with you do not?
If copying is not stealing, why does the word "copyright" even exist? Could it be that it exists to define and allocate the right to copy? And, dare I say, could that imply that such right is not universal?