Personally I see this whole "well music that people make a living off of shouldn't be shared, but it's okay for genres that don't make as much money". It is like saying that say, making fun of a half jewish person isn't as bad as making fun of a jewish person, for being jewish. That is at least the vibe I got from the last few pages.
As for filesharing, it is a double-edged sword and a fine line to walk. On one hand I have been exposed to hundreds more bands through file sharing than I would have if it wasn't around. Many, many, many of those bands I liked so I went out and bought their albums, so I am spending money.
On the other hand, the amount of big name bands who are under major labels get peanuts from each cd sale, absolute shit money. So little that you can hardly call it "supporting the artist" you are just supporting the goddamn Recording Industry, gluttonous pigs who do a 500% markup on cds and then give the REAL artist next to nothing. So do I feel bad about "stealing" from the artists, hell no, also, most artists would hopefully do it for the enjoyment of the art and not the sheer profit. If you are supporting yourself through music, fine, but if you already have 10's of millions banked, don't bitch and complain about a few songs going missing.
Local music, or un-labeled music I will not pirate though. I run a cd distribution company (
www.vinland.tk) and I know full well the amount of work, and money small bands put into getting music, and albums out there. I also know that when I spend 10 bucks on a local cd that the 10 bucks I spent is going TO THE ARTIST. It is not going to some label, or recording industry, it is going TO THE ARTIST to help make more albums.