These transactions are virtual, hence not traditionally associated with property. Most important, and most troublesome about attempts to reign such informal trading in, is that it's also fun, and social. Certainly, notions of exposure and punishment no longer apply. What kids learn isn't that it's wrong to steal, but that these kinds of laws are antiquated and toothless. Younger Net users have been able to acquire free music and other culture for so long they understandably view it as a right, not a sudden opportunity to steal.
People tend to react most intensely to the loss of rights they already have.
Millions of younger Americans , online much of their lives, have acquired vast cultural archives, almost akin to individual libraries. So the Congressional aide, part of an institution responsible for governing issues like this, is demonstrating that he lives in a completely different universe than he's supposedly helping to represent. For him and the lawmaker he works for, the downloading of music is simple theft, in the same way a bank robber commits a crime. But a generation of Net users will never view property that way again. A rational legislature grasping this will would seek laws that reflect the new reality, rather than an outdated one.