Cigarette smoking is in decline because science has demonstrated that cigarettes are decidedly harmful to one's health (though still legal). As far as smoking,

Cigarette smoking is in decline because science has demonstrated that cigarettes are decidedly harmful to one's health (though still legal). As far as smoking, piracy is more akin to using marijuana, an illegal activity that is on the rise despite the government's multibillion dollar crusade to make everyone JUST SAY NO. The fact is, similar to piracy, people don't feel bad about smoking pot because nobody is actually harmed in the process. So what happens when the government criminalizes harmless behavior that people enjoy? Many citizens go to jail, and the black market for illegal goods continues to boom. The status of pot in America (ubiquity) is the result of a failed attempt to regulate a risky tangible contraband that has to be carefully cultivated for months in the real world. Now imagine pot with 50x the demand, infinite supply, negligible distribution overhead and you've got yourself a completely ridiculous regulatory agenda. All the threats you describe come from those who would seek to reverse progress so that they can delay adapting to a world with a computer in every pocket. The culture that needs to change is the one that purports we outlaw the transmission of certain binary sequences because someone else sequenced them "first" (although I'm permitted to transmit an arbitrary sequence of copyrighted bits as long as my work is considered derivative).