[strela]

Stealing? It's called sharing.

So if a panhandler walks up to me on the street and removes my wallet from my back pocket, is he "sharing" my money and credit cards with me too? Stealing is stealing.

And it also while bearing some resemblance to the original tracks on the ripped CD, the MP3 compression algorithm alters it enough that it no longer possesses the same audio fidelity as the original.

Irrelevant. The artist, the record company, and RIAA all have a legal say in how their product is consumed by the public; they've all agreed to it together. And, if you fail to abide by that agreement, you are a thief. It is as simple as that.

[Tuxedo]

Except the file was provided by someone willing to share it. Taking my wallet without permission is not sharing. You can argue this until you are blue in the face. It changes nothing. No one cares if some people think they are a thief. 99% of what I download is something I already paid for on cassette... so the artist has my money. I no longer have cassette stereos in my car, as they were not options. So, I download the MP3 version and can listen to music I already paid for.