Am I really being downvoted for suggesting people stop pirating?

Yes, you are. You would probably also be downvoted for suggesting that we "Give peace a chance." As nice a sentiment as it might be, it's more platitude than practicality. You don't even mention why or to what end you're suggesting that people stop pirating, so no one is likely to change their stance or behavior based on your comment.

Moreover, the piracy numbers thrown out by the industry are almost entirely fabricated (it really doesn't seem like they have any good idea about how much piracy is going on), so even if everyone did what you would suggest, the industry would almost certainly blame piracy for their profits falling by 50% anyway.

I agree and thanks for the clarification.

I didn't really think stopping pirating would do anything, just like I don't think we can practically convince people to stop giving MPAA money.

But if we could do the latter, perhaps we could do the former as well? Because if we were able to only do the latter, it would give MPAA and Congress even more reasons to push this kind of shit through.

It seems to me that this solution simply isn't going to work- similar to asking criminals to stop stealing cars/ murdering people.

Hmm, my point is that if we can convince people to give less money to the MPAA (buying movies, movie tickets), we should also discourage pirating those same movies, to avoid the exact scenario Anechoic mentioned.

I don't think its like asking criminals to not be criminals. I thinks more like: "if you want those bullies to pick on you less, try to act less like a dork". Some may feel like it would be betraying their values, but it really would give the bully less motivation to attack your values.

But I agree its unlikely to happen.

The comical thing is that people do argue that infringement raises awareness of a product and thereby increases sales. Whether it's true or not, I don't know, but if so it would certainly be at cross purposes to a boycott.