They defraud investors by purposely producing works they know won't perform well. They screw artists over with bad contracts or lousy residuals. They take advantage of their workers, paying a fraction of a penny to them that they make. On the flip side, these corporations take from society and refuse to give back thanks to ridiculously long copyright protection terms. I don't believe that piracy, the act of downloading a movie, tv show, or song is stealing. We disagree before your argument even begins to form. Or perhaps you support open thievery everywhere at any time, in which case, like I said, you are my enemy.

Yes, their corporations make billions of dollars, just like in every other industry where theft is not tolerated. There appears to be nothing underpinning your worldview for why the industry you work in ought not allow open thievery, but this one should. To pretend it's a noble cause is transparent garbage, and unless you can pose an argument that doesn't complain about how much corporations make, I'm not interested. But I'd say it's about as wrong as stealing a loaf of bread from a grocery store. Should individuals get fined tens of thousands of dollars for infractions? No. (Or, no? Then let's skip this conversation entirely, you are my enemy.) Yeah, piracy is pretty easy. Is it wrong to steal? Yes? Then piracy is wrong. All I care about is some basic consistency if we're going to have morals about anything. I don't care if the actors get paid or not.

I'll add, since I'm not the person you were replying to, I don't care about who gets paid what. That isn't an argument to not pay for the goods or services they offer. If you compare that to today's world of cheap streaming services, high-quality DRM-free music, and even cheaper physical media, it's not even a contest. If you wanted good TV shows, you paid something like $60-80/month for cable TV (more if you wanted to watch The Sopranos) and had to watch on a schedule, with lots of ads. They had limited bit rate and DRM, and you had to buy an expensive iPod if you wanted to use them conveniently. Buying individual songs for the then-unheard of price of $1.65 (99 cents at the time) on iTunes was brand new. (Not judging here - I've certainly done my share.)Īdjusting for inflation: Twenty years ago, a DVD with one recent movie cost ~$30, or you could rent one for $5-8. The ideological goalposts used to justify it keep moving, but the desire for free stuff is timeless. Despite this, piracy is still going strong. (I'm sure it's older than that.) During that time the price of video and audio entertainment has decreased while availability and quality have vastly improved. I have been hearing people make this same basic argument since the 90s. Until then, torrent is how we protest while they create more and more insular streaming services to milk people $9/mo at a time.

> Maybe the media companies will eventually pull their heads out of their collective arses and quit their cartel, allowing the existence of legal, paid streaming sites a-la-Spotify with access to 99% of the repertoire. Or if you're looking for a particular special feature, it's much more convenient to be able to download it than to go looking for a physical media copy and wait for it to be shipped to your door. This encompasses both ease of use (if I know what movie I want to watch, I don't have to search to see where it's streaming), and discoverability (a good torrent site will easily let you see all the movies by a director or actor, and provide recommendations). There's also, very broadly, a 4th reason - convenience. Or if you want to watch the film with a director's commentary. For instance, where the only available version is a crappy remaster (Terminator 2), and the original is much superior. This extends to some other cases as well. with Kodi) that is playable on my TV with one click with a single unifying interface. It's the reason I can't build a collection of media (e.g. It's the reason I can't trust that things I purchase will be available to me indefinitely. DRM is the reason I can't watch movies at the highest bitrates and resolutions on my device from Netflix or Amazon. This is very much a practical reason as well, though this overlaps with 'not available in a usable form'. For political reasons, to avoid supporting DRM.

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