philosophical days

It is strange to follow the internet wars from here - internet equality/net neutrality being attacked for the greater good of coming down hard on copyright infringement, fighting against the “Wild West” of the internet (who ever wanted to be the cavallery, really), government snooping in Europe – Maybe I should vote for the pirates next time. There goes your uninformed voter… and now I have to wait four years!

But what I wanted to say, it is surreal to follow these conversations from here – where there is not even the famous “Unrechtsbewußtsein” - or more simply, no fear of being caught. (That reminds me of an interesting riddle I had recently: If you say you´re sorry for something when you are caught – are you only sorry that you are caught? And if so, does the “sorry” count? I think it was on This American Life, wasn´t it?)

Here, favorite pastime and present for the greater good seems to be the generous sharing of your cell phone music (in mostly abysmal quality, I have to add, a fact that is not being helped by earsplitting volume).
This made me think (and I have to admit and apologize in advance that I was never very busy with these questions, out of sheer mental laziness.)

So, when can you share and when not?

If I listen to a song that only I bought, together with a friend or just another person who did not pay for that song, I am obviously not supposed to be cheating copyright laws … But if the friend or person listens to my music when I am not even there?
When is it cheating?
Do I have to know the person I am sharing my music with? What about parties (bring an other, significant or random..)?
Does the person have to be in the same space as you, when I give the music? What happens if I want to give music to my brother in China, do I have to wait till I see him in person, or at least, not in digital form? And what happens to that phony art thing then, where people in New York saw people in London at the same time via satellite or something, did that not also include music? (and even if it did not, what if it had included music? Yes, I know they probably paid, but what if someone had a cellphone and was playing music on the cellphone….)
Is it a question of numbers – sharing with 6 friends is okay, sharing with 100 is not? (I can only repeat, what about parties?!)

Or is the giving okay, only the taking is not? That would at least be Christian ;) But then, the whole point of coming down on the filesharing is that it is not for your economic benefit isn´t it - so are we not being sanctioned for being better, less materialistic human beings (at least if you share. If you mostly take, your soul is probably in as bad a state as ever).
But they are persecuting those who share, right, less than those who take. Is that only because there are too many takers (logistical problems) or is there a whole conspiracy against anti-capitalist impulses?

Sorry to bore you if you all made up your mind about this / are following those discussions / have understood the legal defense of both parties. I know I must sound like a fourteen-year-old having her first philosophical moment. Special apologies to N, T, and Mr Dukat…