I fully understand the law. This is not an issue of whether or not stealing is legal or illegal. This is an issue of something going from the public to private domain.

When you make a song, you should expect it to be played on the radio, MTV, and stereo systems nationwide. Initially, you have the rights to the song. You made it, you should profit.

After this happens and it becomes more well known, expect people to buy it less and less, and then to find it for free more and more. Newer albums with songs that are more in demand will be sold, and people won't be willing to pay for music tha isn't in high demand anymore. At this point, enforcing copyrights is frivolous and makes you seem like the bad guy when really, there is none. There's an artist and fans.

There is a point when you can no longer draw from the private domain and the song must go public. That is why record companies no longer rely on the same old songs. They could draw infinitely from every playing of the song with minimal new releases, but they do not because they know people will get sick of paying to hear the same song they've heard a million times. That is when the song has to go into public domain, when the bulk of the profits have been attained and further enforcement is relatively useless.

The perfect example is "Happy Birthday." That song is probably one of the best known in the world, yet existing copyrights still exist. By now, the great grandchildren of the writer, people who weren't even alive when the song was written, are reaping profits. There's a point when art cannot be privatized anymore. With an invention, any engineer can tell you that yes, you should be able to profit from your innovation, but there is a time when you must recognize that you've made a tidy profit and, for the sake of society, you have to offer your idea to the public and, for the good of society, let it be used freely.

File sharing shows an inadequacy in the law and acts as a sign that reform is necessary.