I'm going to address is the question about what would happen to sites like this (VBF)... in short: nothing.
Since developer.com owns the site, they are the copyright holders of the content here. Did you know they own your posts? And that you don't? And that if they wanted to mine the forums for code, make a DVD of all the code samples here, and sell it... there's nothing you can do. Once you post something here, you (largely) give up and future rights to it... read the TOS... bet most of you glossed over it... So in the end since developer.com owns the site and all content, they are the technical copyright owners of it, and so there's no conflict which would cause this site to be shut down. So stop getting your knickers is a bunch.

The general feeling I've gotten from people, both on and off line, is yes, we all recognize that pirating content is a problem. Where the industry (MPAA and RIAA) seem to be at odds with the general public is how to curb it and enforcement. MPAA and RIAA seem to be content to fire indiscriminately into the crowd in the hopes of hitting a guilty party. They are old-school and I don't think they get it. And they probably never will.
http://bit.ly/yizbpo
A good number of artists are figuring it out, that's why there are a lot of independent labels now... they're trying to get around organizations in their own industry and going straight to the public. In a lot of cases, it's been met with a lot of success. In some, not so much.
RIAA needs to relax some. I used to run a streaming station... I've looked into the licensing rules implemented by RIAA for playing media. If I charge no money, and spend no money on equipment, new music, or services, then I pay $X .... if I make money, say through ad revenue, then I pay $X + $Y ... OK... I get that... makes sense. If I spend money, say to upgrade a server, or aquire new music to add to the collection, then I pay $X + $Z ... where Z is actually HIGHER than Y even if income = expenses... WHAAAT? I don't think the RIAA has figured out that the harder they try to clamp down, it makes it harder for the rest of us that want to do the right thing, and in the end drives us underground and obtain things through alternate channels.

-tg