danny - 1:45 am on Nov 27, 2002 (gmt 0)

What I queried was why downloading copyright material is seem to be "accepted" as something quite acceptable when it is in fact an illegal act.

Ummm... pretty much every web page is copyright, are we committing a crime everytime we view one?

But more seriously, even copying copyright material is often perfectly legal - there are fair use exemptions in the US, for example, which allow copying of CDs to tape for private use in (say) the car, and some other countries have even stronger user rights.