I wish people would stop calling this sort of thing "piracy". Proper piracy -robbery, abduction and so forth on the high seas - is a continuing problem. This is hardly in the same league. May I suggest using "theft" instead, which at least is more or less accurate.
general definition of theft (not legal): the dishonest taking of property belonging to another person with the intention of depriving the owner permanently of its possession.
When I go to Youtube and listen to an extremely good song by Twilightning or Edguy, what am I taking from the band? Due to a few different reasons (money, I don't have to) I have never run across anything I will pay money to listen to or watch, books being a small exception since I like well made hardcovers a la Practical Common Lisp. I will, however, refer others to the good movies or music I stumble upon.
Unlike many proponents of torrents, I heavily disagree that all music should be free; that simply is not sustainable in my opinion. Not enough people will then go out of their way to pay for it and I have no idea how well bands do when it comes to concerts/merchandise. I do think that free music benefits bands but that overall benefit increases exponentially with how hard it is to obtain it, because those of us who would never have listened to a band's music before the internet (finding obscure bands via radio is nigh impossible) will often refer them to friends, while the rest who are willing to pay take the easier route - this is important - and buy music.
Currently, torrents, youtube (amusingly, even the official youtube versions are often worse to listen to due to censorship - VEVO is a good example) and other avenues are the better choice for anyone with loose morals, after taking into account risk and ease of access.
tl;dr those of you who will pay for music should subsidize the rest of us.
