LogFAQs > #881993549

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I wouldn't argue that piracy is literally exactly as bad as physical theft, but I do (and always have) absolutely support the position that you ARE, in theory, costing the creator of whatever you're pirating money.

And that "No I'm not, because I was never going to pay for it anyway!" is not a valid argument, because there is literally no scenario in which you "deserve" to be able to experience a paid product for free simply because you feel overly entitled. If you were never going to pay for it, then you shouldn't be experiencing it, period.

Except you're overlooking that somebody who doesn't care enough to pay for a product wouldn't necessarily buy it in lieu of piracy, which is why the 1:1 piracy=lost sale argument is completely wrong. And that also overlooks the fact that rentals, libraries, and borrowing from friends similarly gut sales since people who were willing to pay money (for rentals, anyway) aren't giving their money to the company. Granted, I'm sure that corporations will someday figure out a way to stop libraries from carrying their product and ban rental services and, of course, stop used-DVD/CD/book/games sales.

A perfect example is any of the random stuff I find on Youtube, almost none of which has resulted in a sale when I couldn't find the full thing on YT, NFI, Hulu, etc. And, in the case of the John Adams miniseries, I watched what clips I could then wound up going to my local library. (Otherwise I would have borrowed somebody's HBO online info.)

While piracy is legally and morally wrong (bolded to emphasize my feelings), the creators don't always suffer a direct harm from it. And, at times, piracy later results in a sale. I pirated Chrono Trigger before eventually buying it on the DS which I might not have done otherwise. And piracy sites like Youtube have made me aware of series, films, etc, which I've watched on other services. (Which, while not a sale, is a legal service which results in creator-compensation unlike borrowing something, buying secondhand, etc.)
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