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It is not ethical to enjoy creative content without duly compensating creators of these works. That much we can probably all agree with. The discussion is about what is due compensation. One could say that downloading a file without paying the author is stealing. But if a downloader actually spends the same amount of money and statistically it all spreads out, then the authors have in fact received their due compensation. The aggregate of all these numerous small acts of "stealing" results in approximately zero total loss. Isn't it wonderful? The economy (if done correctly) is not a zero sum game, and similarly the piracy (with proper balance) can be zero loss or maybe even some additional profit.
Finding the most profitable policy towards piracy may not be easy but I think that decriminalizing downloaders and putting blame on uploaders and especially to those who profit from pirating is a good policy.
Another way to deal with losses from piracy is to actually sell digital products to willing customers. Every time a book/movie/game is sold with georestrictions, it encourages piracy in other regions. Internet has no borders and it will be very hard to convince people that these obsolete distribution models are good for society, authors, publishers or consumers.
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