Not sure how twisted or hypocritical this is, but I am anti-piracy when it comes to independent or small companies/designers/musicians. Downloading songs by big, powerful, rich artists doesn't cause me any guilt - am I really hurting their earnings? If evidence proving that is presented to me, I will stop pirating and buy their stuff. I buy CDs and DVDs by one artist, which is my favourite band. I also buy songs when it's a "pay any amount" price (e.g. Amanda Palmer employs such a system). I would buy songs via iTunes if I didn't hate the program so much and lack an Apple device. I'm afraid I'm a broke student and can't afford to buy CDs and DVDs of every song or movie I want to experience, and I also can't deal with how much physical space that they would occupy - if it's available to me for free, why shouldn't I take it? It's not like I'm physically stealing something or causing a terrible inconvenience. I don't download huge amounts either.
I also think that downloading *reasonable* amounts ~illegally~ is ok for sampling purposes. I'm eager to give deserving content publicity online, which should totally count for something according to the speed, breadth, and depth (imagine a tree of users) with which information is propagated online nowadays. I am way more anti-piracy/theft when it comes to small artists and designers. I don't pirate games because I don't game anymore.
Amanda Palmer has written about her experiments with a business model involving letting fans pay what they think she deserves, and how the music industry should embrace downloading as a form of acquisition of music, and try to monetise it instead of fight it. It's an interesting read, and I think I agree with her. I can't find the link to her posts about it