I know this is a somewhat extreme example, but I believe the underlying message is the same.

Say I don't like car thieves. (I really, really don't... I love my car. :] ) Would it be ethical for me, then, to get, say, a Ferrari 360, plant a car bomb, and leave it parked in the middle of Detroit for a week or so waiting to be stolen? Or, more fitting, would it be ethical to plant a digital camera-cell phone to send a picture of the thief to me so I can hold their identity over their heads blackmail style? I hope not.

Granted, no one is going to get killed by downloading this nonsense, but it's still wrong. Someone in a previous post mentioned the validity of a sting operation using a rigged sweepstakes. That's all fine and good. This, however, is *not* a sting. Those people already did something illegal. This, in keeping with the law enforcement metaphor, is far closer to entrapment. Entrapment, of course, is a violation of civil liberties, and not permitted in any of these 50 states that I know of.

Ethics aside, it's just rude. To throw out another analogy. If someone cuts me off in traffic, or runs a stop sign, it makes me grouchy. (Piracy makes me grouchy, too. I'm a programmer.) It may even make me so grouchy I hurl obscenities at their car, under my breath. What I don't do, is follow them, get their license plate, find out who they are, send them mail at home telling them they shouldn't run stop signs and post their car's make/model and license plate all over town in a list of people who *I* think are bad drivers... not taking into account that their may actually be a legitimate reason they were driving like that the one day. It's a rude, immature, unreasonable thing to do.

Remember, the only good vigilante in American history was Batman... assuming Gotham City is in America.

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