crux wrote: I don't understand how people can be so blasé about piracy with film. I suppose some people might have an axe to grind with certain Hollywood production companies, but I would also imagine those would be the same kind of people with an appreciation for indie productions, which often need all the help they can get.
People who claim that music/movie piracy is some kind of moral high ground (or, as you put it, have some axe to grind against Hollywood) are delusional. The problem is that they get widespread support for their beliefs - the acceptance of piracy is a mass delusion, especially among the 30 and under crowd.
Claiming that studio releases are too pricey and so piracy is justifiable is a batshit crazy argument. Even if you can support an argument that prices
are inflated, two wrongs don't make a right. Piracy is not a form of protest.
Do I ever pirate anything? Yes. I also recognize it as theft, though, and wouldn't try to claim otherwise. Usually what I pirate is stuff that can't be purchased at all (e.g. OOP films or albums) or stuff that is aired for free (most TV shows, stuff that gets radio play, etc.). I am probably more guilty with my music downloading, but I own more than a thousand official CDs and probably less than 10% of my entire music collection is pirated. I also end up buying a pretty large percentage of what I download, so I tend to use album downloads to replace in store-listening stations (do these even still exist?).
However, none of this means that my actions should be any more legal or are any more justifiable from an ethical standpoint. Piracy is stealing, period. It doesn't matter that you have no respect for those who make money from the product. That's like saying it is ok to steal cable or bandwidth from your neighbors if they are assholes.
