Pirates aren't going anywhere. One site shuts down, 5 more pop up. It's an impossible game of whack-a-mole. This isn't a statement in favor of or against copyright infringement, it's a simple fact.
It may be. The discrepancy between 99 cents and 1 cent is considered to be much smaller than the discrepancy between 99 cents and nothing.
and still get pirated in large numbers
Citation needed.
This is great. Basically the authorities are fighting a superior technology with nothing but the greatest of benefits: everyone contributes when downloading, so the load is not 100% on the server to serve the content. And the authorities are not giving good alternatives. ISPs are not working together with bt developers to make a protocol friendly for everyone, instead they are fighting to keep the protocol down.
O well I like the part about the servers being given to a museum.