Web Site Will Shut Down to Protest Antipiracy Bills - NYTimes.com

This is such a poorly informed discussion. Extremism on both sides is leading to an unfortunate missed opportunity to reaffirm a core principle - if you steal something from someone else, you are obliged to pay for it and to pay a penalty. The zealots in opposition to the legislation do not believe this principle, no matter what they say. And the people protecting legitimate copyright interests have failed to keep the discussion at the level it merits - if you steal, you pay. That's more important than all of the ethereal discussion about the opportunities for people to "use" the work of others to make a better world. And it is a more fundamental policy issues demanding fresh articulation.