Involuntary, inhumane incarceration threatens <i>actual</i> thieves. Those that collate stealing and piracy are wrong; it's just a cheap rhetorical point they use because it takes too many words to dispute.<p>Moral values should come into play only at a meta-level, because we can only ever talk about economic models rather than the reality that economics doesn't actually describe.<p>Morals do function as a modifying factor in the model of the overall willingness of people to donate to artists for recorded music.<p>BitTorrent pirates are never ordered to jail, except maybe the Pirate bay guys, but I don't think anyone expects them to actually serve any time.