I have much to say about whether piracy is "morally wrong." For individual creators and distributors, yes. But do you think Rockstar Games or Mircosoft and Apple will ever pay a share of every sale of a product or a service to the employees in their organizations who spent time worth years developing them?
It's still wrong because it's basically stealing. It's irrelevant how the organization works internally. Stealing a banana from a local fruit vendor and stealing one from Costco is the same thing. If it's not okay to steal/pirate stuff from small creators but not big ones, clearly there's a line somewhere that makes it okay. Where is that line - at 50 employees, 500, etc? Of course nobody can answer this because there is none.
That said, the one major way piracy is different from theft is the creator doesn't incur a direct loss of money or goods when something is pirated, which is probably why a lot of people (including myself) feel relatively less guilty/ethically sketchy about it, than if they were stealing something outright.
Excellent writing backed by research and presented in an organised manner. It’s a scholarly article which is creatively peppered by memes and anecdotes keeping the interest alive till the last word. Thanks for the service to the readers.
An excellent piece and immediately relatable! Interestingly, my first thought was how this has fully crept into the video game world with stuff like Game Pass; even digital video game stores like Steam are a bit hazy with regard to how much ownership you really have. I'll have to do a bit more research to learn more maybe.
The analogy of reading your favorite childhood books and owning physical copies as opposed to reading an altered eBook version hit home! It’s outrageous indeed, great job with this, its one of your best ones yet!
I have much to say about whether piracy is "morally wrong." For individual creators and distributors, yes. But do you think Rockstar Games or Mircosoft and Apple will ever pay a share of every sale of a product or a service to the employees in their organizations who spent time worth years developing them?
It's still wrong because it's basically stealing. It's irrelevant how the organization works internally. Stealing a banana from a local fruit vendor and stealing one from Costco is the same thing. If it's not okay to steal/pirate stuff from small creators but not big ones, clearly there's a line somewhere that makes it okay. Where is that line - at 50 employees, 500, etc? Of course nobody can answer this because there is none.
That said, the one major way piracy is different from theft is the creator doesn't incur a direct loss of money or goods when something is pirated, which is probably why a lot of people (including myself) feel relatively less guilty/ethically sketchy about it, than if they were stealing something outright.
Excellent writing backed by research and presented in an organised manner. It’s a scholarly article which is creatively peppered by memes and anecdotes keeping the interest alive till the last word. Thanks for the service to the readers.
Thanks, glad you liked it!
An excellent piece and immediately relatable! Interestingly, my first thought was how this has fully crept into the video game world with stuff like Game Pass; even digital video game stores like Steam are a bit hazy with regard to how much ownership you really have. I'll have to do a bit more research to learn more maybe.
Worth the wait!!
Yeah, I imagine this problem is pretty bad in the gaming world. I'm just not familiar with it enough.
Brilliant Siddesh!
Even I have noticed some of my favourite songs disappear on Prime.
This article was a thoughtful 'dekho' into the world of online ownership.
Keep the ink flowing.
Forza!!!
Thank you!
The analogy of reading your favorite childhood books and owning physical copies as opposed to reading an altered eBook version hit home! It’s outrageous indeed, great job with this, its one of your best ones yet!
Yo thanks! Buy those physical books when you can 💪