The anti-piracy groups are basically your stereotypical big business, evil corporate, large smoke stack smoke spewing types by trying to incriminate those they have labelled as 'pirates' and prevent their clean and green ways.

By saying no to buying a CD/DVD, computer/video game + console, books and comics you are giving the planet a nice peck on the cheek.

I mean those DVDs are made of lord knows what, come in a plastic casing, and enveloped in some sort of synthetic cling wrap as well as a glossy paper insert. The DVD is also transported to a store near you by a fuel guzzling truck thundering down the freeways.

Sure these scumbags will offer to take your money for an electronic copy should every one become so caring to the environment (or a 'pirate' as they would call you) but just remember that these asses should not be rewarded for their destructive ways of the past (present at time of writing).

Sure you need to have a computer and it powered up, but the positives of piracy far out weigh the non-existant negatives of piracy.

Don't they already have Digital distribution services?

Grrr, Metallica, Grrrr.

in today's society the only positives for piracy is for the pirate. I pirate just as much as the next guy (actually, probably a shitton more), but even I have a conscience.

Some groups dont mind it and some groups encourage it (Nine Inch Nails and NuL, for example). The hippy in me loves to give away things for the common good of mankind. That's why I advocate the use of Linux and other open source software and why I contribute to a friend's open ECM project.

However, I strongly discourage you from pirating software. As a programmer I know how difficult it is to get everything perfect and the large amounts of time I must devote to writing to get everything to work right. Music doesnt take much time to compose or to record, but software can take years to complete.

You dont take much away from a musician if you pirate one song, but you take much food from a programmer when you take his software that he supports himself by.