[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by darryl

Making serious money from other people's creative work? Sound like any publishers you know?

Publishers pay authors for the right to use publish the authors' creative works, and the authors voluntarily give them that right.

That's quite a bit different from just taking someone's work without their permission and making money off of it. And the false equivalency between publishers and pirates is just silly - you might as well equate car thieves and car dealers, since both make money from the car manufacturer.

I'm not sure if the US laws against Cartels create applicable criminal offences, so make no comment on this aspect. I suppose at least an author has the chance of receiving some money from a publisher for their work, which can't be said of the Pirate Bay.

I'm not sure what this means - but of course authors receive money from publishers; that's kind of the point.

Laws and Court Rulings which can't realistically be enforced tend to create a contempt for the law.

This may be true, although it remains to be seen whether it can be enforced. We've had laws against theft since time immemorial, but theft hasn't been eliminated yet. But I haven't seen any call to decriminalize theft yet. (Although at common law it was punishable by death if the amount involved was greater than 12 pence, so it is the case that the penalty has been dramatically reduced).