Pirate?

So here's a thought that's been nagging at me for some time; Who are the real pirates?

You see ads all the time on t.v; 'You wouldn't steal a magazine, you wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't steal a baby, DOWNLOADING IS STEALING', but I can't help but wonder who the real thieves are. I guess it makes me think of a Green Day song, or, more importantly, a line from said song;

"Then I realized what it took To tell the difference between Thieves and crooks"

Company's make their product, and put it on cds/dvds. They then sell it to stores, making a profit and paying all the artists involved. The stores then take the cds/dvds that cost them maybe ten to twenty dollars a piece, mark them up to eighty dollars, and complain that people would rather download it all for free... They call everybody else thieves, and yet they refuse to try lowering their prices to a reasonable human level in an attempt to win back customers.

And what of politicians that steal billions of dollars... is it just me or do they always seem to get away with it like it was nothing. Yet here, you, or I, download a song we heard on the radio that we like, and the gov't, the producers, hell everybody that could possibly make two and a half cents off the song, wants to kick in our door and fine us billions.

I'm all for supporting our artists, but I *don't* want to support the company that's pushing a 300% price increase... The rich just can't stand to miss a chance at getting richer it seems...

-Wraith
P.S - I know I'ma catch flack for all that... but seriously, I'd rather download that *one* song I like from a cd for free than pay twenty to thirty bucks for a cd... just so I can listen to *one* song... Do I support piracy? Nope, surprisingly I don't, but it's become almost the only answer.