Since this has turned into a piracy thread, and I'm finally home, I'll give my thought on it.
Yes, it is "wrong", and it is getting a "work of art" for free.
However, it's hard to deny that it does have a positive effect on the market. It creates competition for distribution platforms. Sure, it's hard to beat the pricepoint of free, but people will pay for convenience. Steam and iTunes have done more to combat piracy than any law enforcement endeavors. This isn't because they have a competitive price compared to free, but because they are so damn easy, but still offer decent price points.
Typing an album name into iTunes, paying 5 bucks, and having it within a couple minutes is just so much faster and easier than trying to find a torrent, hoping theres seeders, hoping it's real, and hoping it isn't full of viruses. And, maybe I'm naive, but I think if people are given two comparable options with one being "wrong", they are almost always going to choose the other.
The only industry that hasn't caught up to music and games are TV series and movies. There's too many different services to the point where you need some kind of spreadsheet to see which service which show you want to see is on, and then you need to pay and remember a dozen different services. It's easier to find a torrent and pray that it works rather than pull out your spreadsheet to find out which service this season of Hannibal is airing on.
Even Adobe has went with the "cheaper and more convenient" route. Photoshop that used to cost 800 dollars now costs 10 dollars a month, with automatic updates, etc. You just sign up and it works.
So is it wrong? Yes. But if it helps create innovation and improved customer experience, then I can't entirely condemn it.
