There are a number of industries that have been affected by the technological revolution but entertainment media is about the only one where millions steal and feel no compunction about it. Retail chains may have online stores but many also have the brick buildings to go along with it. You can steal credit card info but there are safeguards. Only material created for enjoyment can be easily stolen on the internet.

I believe the ISPs could stop it if they had a reason to. It may take constant diligence but their ad dollars are pretty constant too.

It started with Napster so I hear. I've never been able to determine how Napster made money. They got a lot of venture capital while they were being given away for free though. In 2002, Bertlesmann said they'd buy Napster assets for $85 mil. That deal never went through. A porn industry group wound up buying rights to Napster for $2.43 million. In September of this year, Best Buy bought Napster for $121 million.

It bugs me that because of it's gargantuan presence in the web world, Microsoft has to be considered partly responsible for the success of file sharing theft. At the same time, Microsoft made the biggest chunk of their money through Windows operative systems. The part that bugs me is we don't own the Windows on our computer, we're just leasing it. Microsoft owns it and they keep doing things to our computer. They can tell if we copied it illegally and they have been known to seek restitution. That software they protect so diligently is the same software that helps a lot of thieves steal copyrighted material. It don't seem right to me.