Reducing the openness of the internet is synonymous with destroying it. To stop piracy altogether, I believe the value of the internet would need to be complete

Reducing the openness of the internet is synonymous with destroying it. To stop piracy altogether, I believe the value of the internet would need to be completely destroyed, yes. > I'm not interested in destroying or even significantly hampering the internet. But I also don't want the internet to destroy the ability of people to make a living from their creative work. You do realize that it has always been very difficult for artists to make a living off their work. So difficult, in fact, that the vast majority do their art in their spare time and work other jobs to stay afloat, and that has been the case long before piracy existed. I would argue that with the advent of the internet, and yes, file sharing (illegal or otherwise) has actually made it possible for more people to make a living off their art than could before these systems were in place. What you seem to be in favor of is protecting a very small number of people - namely signed, popular artists - while hurting the majority of other artists, people who share art, and the internet itself.