I'm reminded of a concert I went to a few months ago, where the lead singer, between songs, announced: "Our next song is one we didn't write [it was a cover, either
Linoleum or
Punk Rock Girl], it's from out new album,
99 Songs of Revolution, and if you don't have it, then go on the internet and steal it because it's great and we think everyone should hear it." The same person also said (in an interview about one of their earlier albums (which was then tacked onto the end of the album)) "For that we sacrificed months of our time and our money, and now we feel what we have is worth paying for. Although, truth be told, I don't care if a single record is sold... Do I think it's worth thirteen dollars? Yes, very much so, but that's my opinion. What other people decide, that's their own opinion. We're going to keep doing what we do whether or not a single record is sold."
The only bands that make a meaningful sum of money, especially those signed with big labels, off of record sales are the ones that are making an absolutely obscene sum off of live performances as well. Small, independent bands should be more concerned with using filesharing like the radio of old: as a means of publicity.
Every musician I've talked to (who has any albums, that is), has said that they put their work on filesharing sites for the publicity, even ones who also sell them.
Ah yes, Bay12, where you can start a thread on how pirating is not all that bad and end up on how Hitler ruined everything because of his sense of style and not the fact he killed so many people.
Everyone dies eventually, but aesthetics belong to everyone. Tainting a set of aesthetics for generations is clearly the greater crime, because it hurts
everyone, not just an exceedingly small subset of humanity.