I was just arguing that hackers, hacker culture, and programmers/hackers as a socioeconomic class are far more powerful than artists as a socioeconomic class.

I was just arguing that hackers, hacker culture, and programmers/hackers as a socioeconomic class are far more powerful than artists as a socioeconomic class. They're also arguably more powerful than the RIAA, MPAA, and even governments-- in this particular domain. Sure they can be arrested one by one and sites can be taken down one by one, but overall the hackers are winning and the old stalwarts are losing. Look up the difference in average income between a musician and a programmer. Who's "punk" now? I'd also like to point out that Apple is far more valuable than any record company, and Google is practically the gloved hand of the U.S. State Department. The technology industry -- which opposes strong copyrights for a number of reasons -- has far more political "juice" these days than ailing record companies.