There is an interesting article on Yale's LawMeme regarding PVRs (Tivo) and the legalities of the contract with the network regarding the contract with the network... it is fundamentally an analysis of comments from Jamie Kellner (head of TBS) that portrayed Tivo use as theft.
By extension I would include the online trading and downloading of music in this issue; what is happening is not so much that people are choosing to destroy the music industry, but the industry's own unwillingness to adjust to a changing marketplace is threatening to make their entire distribution channel irrelevant/obselete. Their whole business is a relatively recent development that's an accident of technology; they don't have any fundamental role in the development or distribution of creative content.
I particularly liked this citation from the article:
There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or a corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years , the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped ,or turned back, for their private benefit.
- "Robert Heinlein"
