Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

Prove gods exist, else the core question is moot.

Religion really does have the potential to blow up in one’s face, and in the worst cases, literally.

But religion has so many good sides too and much to say on many issues, so what advice does it have to offer on file-sharing? Is it a sin? Or is sharing with one’s peers a supreme act of kindness and generosity?

The first question is made irrelevant by the latter two. If religion in general had helpful things to say, it would be unambiguous. However, due to the intrinsically interpretive nature of religion, it is confusing at best and harmful at worst. Sure, some people might arrive at an answer to a question, but it is not necessarily a rational answer.

Also, the fact that religion can and is often used to turn insane notions like killing people into acceptable behavior (to the religious) should be reason enough to disregard it when seeking answers. Why should we care what religion has to say whatsoever based on this fact?

Lastly, whatever good comes from religion is humanistic in origin. All of the "good" of religion can be found without it, and if it offered anything substantively unique, magic would be real. You get to decide your own morality, and this entire article is doing precisely that, regardless of religious preference.

Time will tell if the various Gods in the universe will choose to forgive those who copy music and movies, or those who merely covet their neighbor’s files.

No it won't, because again, there's no objective evidence gods exist. Some might say that we'd find out when we die, but we have no evidence of any particular afterlife existing beyond blind assertions by people who have had near death experiences and religious texts, neither of which agree or should be taken as proof of anything (unless you want to argue that works like the Epic of Gilgamesh were also true tales).

If God(s) has a problem with piracy, let him put a stop to it himself, but I don't see him stopping real problems like billionaire robber barons and cancer in children, so nobody should feel any concern or worry that there's some cosmic policeman waiting in the bushes to jump out and catch them.