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Two main reasons.

1. When you don't pirate, at the margin you'll give some of your time, attention, publicity, and money to the sort of producers you want to encourage, which would've gone to Big Content, except only for the money.

2. People rationalize. It's what humans do. When you have a reason not to pay, to what extent is it the main reason? You're both setting up a constant temptation to lie to yourself and clouding your motives to others -- they have more trouble telling how seriously to take your stated reason.

(My Big Content disclosure: a netflix subscription and a very occasional DVD or CD purchase -- the last one was Game of Thrones. Haven't been to the cinema in several years and I'm thinking of dropping netflix. Oh, I do still buy plenty of books, though the internet has cut into that. Also, I hypocritically pirate academic books sometimes and do the same for papers with no compunction at all (edit: barring evidence the actual author cares). Maybe that should've gone first, oh well.




When you don't pirate, at the margin you'll give some of your time, attention, publicity, and money to the sort of producers you want to encourage

Pirating from people who I don't want to encourage, and paying people who I do want to encourage are not mutually exclusive actions.

When you have a reason not to pay, to what extent is it the main reason? You're both setting up a constant temptation to lie to yourself and clouding your motives to others -- they have more trouble telling how seriously to take your stated reason.

For one, I don't particularly care what anyone else thinks of my media consumption habits. I state my reasons for pirating content - if someone disbelieves me, that is their prerogative.. the goal of not supporting people who campaign against me is achieved regardless.


You can do both, but at the margin there is an effect.

You may not care, but 1. People's opinions affect the fight; perhaps it's most of the battle. And 2. as a human you can't trust your self-perception.


What do you mean by 'at the margin'?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marginal_utility

In a world where I'd already watched Game of Thrones season 2 via torrent I'd still have consumed some of the other entertainments that I actually did, but less of them.




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