I edited much of that out of my original post... but let me respond. The point is that the solutions to piracy treat fair use as though it's just as illegitimate as piracy, with the paradox that you sometimes have to commit piracy to get fair use.
I'm assuming you are talking about things like sharing amongst friends, but I can't find any evidence that is actually covered by fair use.
purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. --Wikipedia, "Fair use"
Certainly you won't get sued for sharing your Metallica record with your friend Bobby, but I don't believe that is related of fair use.
