Perhaps this comment from Tim O'Reilly will open some eyes.

[Craig Morehouse <craigm@gdi.net>]

[MODERATOR's NOTE:  Thanks to Mr. Morehouse for posting the entire piece
to liblicense-l. Because our listproc software puts limitations on the
size of individual messages, we needed to edit down to just the headings,
to give readers a flavor of the interesting piece they will find at the
URL provided below.]

http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2002/12/11/piracy.html

Piracy is Progressive Taxation, and Other Thoughts on the Evolution of
Online Distribution
by Tim O'Reilly
12/11/2002  

The continuing controversy over online file sharing sparks me to offer a
few thoughts as an author and publisher. To be sure, I write and publish
neither movies nor music, but books. But I think that some of the
lessons of my experience still apply

Lesson 1: Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative
artists than piracy.

[SNIP]

Lesson 2: Piracy is progressive taxation

[SNIP]

Lesson 3: Customers want to do the right thing, if they can.

[SNIP]

Lesson 4: Shoplifting is a bigger threat than piracy.

[SNIP]

Lesson 5: File sharing networks don't threaten book, music, or film
publishing. They threaten existing publishers. 

[SNIP]

Lesson 6: "Free" is eventually replaced by a higher-quality paid service

[SNIP]

Lesson 7: There's more than one way to do it.

[SNIP]

--