The whole business of paying artists for their work is totally bogus - the music industry has ceased to employ musicians or anyone with talent precisely because that can get talentless bimbos and himbos to perform like trained monkeys, pay them peanuts until the end of their shelf life (usually 2 weeks) and then screw massive amounts of money out idiots who are prepared to buy the crap.
-Carol Haynes
But this is not an argument for TPB. Idiots buy lots of idiotic things, and businesses queue up to sell rubbish to idiots. That's capitalism, folks. Those of us who are not idiots exercise our awesome right not to buy rubbish, or to refuse to buy products that we cannot "try before we buy". The power of capitalism cuts both ways.
I really didn't want to start yet another debate about whether torrent sites are a good thing, I was just surprised to see DC members supporting these sites (which also permit illegal software downloads, of course).
And I agree that there are reasonable uses for torrent sites. Downloading last night's EastEnders, while strictly speaking unlawful, seems reasonable to me, because (a) I can't imagine the BBC being able to demonstrate any "conseqential loss" and (b) there's an argument (yet to be tested in court) that it might fall under "fair use" -- the equivalent of swapping a video tape with your neighbour (presuming it is EastEnders or other similar free-to-air material we're talking about -- for all non-UK members, I should add that EastEnders is a soap opera made by the BBC).
But no, in general, I believe if you don't like the product on offer, don't buy it. Downloading it for free just because you don't like the way the industry works doesn't make it more noble or lawful.