Is online piracy a really serious problem? My opinion: nope.

[JackRiddler]

53. Strain as you might, your argument falters on the attempt

to equate the civil matter of copyright infringement with the criminal act of theft. However, copying unauthorized by the owner is not theft and any damages must be shown, not assumed. That's what SOPA and similar barbarisms are about: shifting copyright from civil to criminal purview, or effectively criminalizing acts that are civil violations at most. (Because this country needs more categories of crime to prosecute!) The exchange you present doesn't happen in civil court, where it's on the plaintiff to show damages incurred. The way you're phrasing it already assumes "stealing." Dragging this fundamentally civil matter into criminal court gives much more power to what should have been a plaintiff to just devise fantasy damages and claim "theft" has been committed.