[hythloday]

I think it's a little bit disingenuous of you to admit they're different and then immediately conflate them. :)

I think also that the really widespread nature of this begins to look more like civil disobedience than opportunism. (The difference being that people who act opportunistically hope that no-one else does; people who act in civil disobedience hope that everyone does.) I hope you're not going to make the case that civil disobedience is a non-virtuous act simply because it's illegal?

As a historical note: without illegal copyright infringement in the 1700s, the works of Shakespeare, Milton, and Chaucer would still be under copyright. As a British taxpayer (and thus an involuntary investor in Downton Abbey), I'm fully in favour of people who would otherwise have difficulty seeing it downloading it, even if they have to break a law to do it.