No, if I just wanted it for free, then I would just say I want it for free.

Yes, I don't want to give a retailer money if they're taking massive profit they don't deserve, even if that means not giving the author money either. A small profit for distribution is fine.

(The lifetime value of a Kindle format of a book is far less than that of a physical book. I try to pass on almost every physical book I buy to someone else for reuse.)

I would rather:

* get it for free

* get it for free, and give the author money some other way

* wait till I can get it in a less-undeserving way

* just go buy it from someone else to deny giving business to the big company that doesn't deserve it (say, to an independent bookstore.)

* buy a different format that they deserve to make more money on.

And I'll venture to guess that, if you don't understand this thought process, the buying behaviors of 'millennials' (which advertisers care a lot about understanding) are probably a total mystery to you.

Or... you could just not read the book.

> get it for free, and give the author money some other way

The amount of people who torrent a book/movie/show and then find a way to 'pay the creator' is so small as to be a fantasy.

> the buying behaviors of 'millennials' ... are probably a total mystery to you.

Aw... I like how you decide to change your selfish behaviour into a patronising statement. The distributor, whom the author has made a deal with, is 'taking massive profit they don't deserve', meanwhile you have no qualms not holding up your end of the bargain in coughing up some dough.

I have no real problem with this if people are being honest. Fuck, I spent the first few years of my adult life playing ridiculous amounts of cracked games for the Amiga. But to phrase it as some sort of social justice, that's just twisted and morally vacuous. If you want to be moral, don't consume the media. Otherwise, don't pretend that you're some sort of virtuous underdog.

As for the patronising "you don't understand millenials", perhaps you forget that we older folks (I'm an X-er) have been through our early 20s as well, and know what it's like to raise our defiant fists against "the man". You're not something special and new in the world. Each generation is a little different, but the basic patterns remain the same.

I'm not telling you what the virtuous thing to do is, I'm telling you what people like me actually do. The fact that doesn't fit into your system of honesty and propriety, and the fact that this doesn't read as 'selfish' to us, is the same as the fact that we are operating in different, incompatible ethical systems.

I contend that this is in no sense 'raising defiant fists against the man'. There's nothing defiant about it. It's a product of a different system of morality, but it's not a defiant action in that system. It's the result of a different formula for calculating if an action (say, a purchase) is worth it, that takes into account different variables than you use.

Patronising, whatever, but it was still obvious from your previous post that you weren't a holder of the millennial mindset, and it's still obvious from this one that you don't understand them. You're of course fully welcome to preach your morals, say that ours are bad and wrong, and call us entitled -- but nothing like that ever changes minds so what's the point?

(And I didn't say I often or even occasionally get something for free and then pay the creator. What I'll do is pick one of my listed options. That was the point of listing options. You're correct that that one is rarely picked. That's why 'get it for free' was also on the list.)