While I'm a big fan of Tom Tomorrow's blog, I feel compelled to point something out:

Copying music is illegal.

Theft is illegal.

But...

Copying music is not theft. Period.

Copyright law and theft have very little to do with each other. Different rules, different punishments, different ideas, and different sections of the criminal code. Attempts to describe one as the other as such only reveal one's nature as either an unwitting dupe or as someone who appears to enjoy deliberate obfuscation, and attempts to describe those who point out the valid difference as mere "pirate apologists" is worse than useless. If this meaningless connection wasn't so widespread, we wouldn't be taking it on the chin every time Congress passes a new "Intellectual Property" law that serves as music industry welfare.