said by Morac: I'm pretty sure most people at this point know downloading pirated material is illegal, the same way that people know speeding is illegal.
Actually I rather doubt that. There is nothing in the online experience that tells them this. So how would they know?
From personal experience with my family and friends, I know that people are surprised when I tell them that downloading songs and videos for free is illegal and leaves them vulnerable to being sued.
The usual response is something like "Huh? So-and-so told me about this great website, all I had to do was click a few times and it was downloading. It told me I needed to share to get better downloads so I loaded some of my CDs onto it. I bought them, so I can do anything I want with them."
I actually had several arguments with my daughter who was using (I think) LimeWire. She finally took it off but was really angry at me. Then, her friend's sister got sued by the RIAA. When she told me, the look on her face was priceless. She looked at me like, "Wow! My Dad was actually right! And I thought I knew everything!"