If you see something that you are not willing to pay for, is that considered theft ?
There is a movie in the theater, and you really have no interest in that particular movie, you do not just jump on your bicycle and head up there to watch this movie. You never bother. One day it comes on cable or regular tv and there is nothing on, so you finally watch the dang thing. That is not pirating. If there is no access to this item other than pay, and you do not want to pay to see the movie, you do not see the movie, if the same person sees the movie for free, there is no actual loss to anyone. If anything, there is one more person on the street to say ” hey man I saw that dang movie and it really was a whole lot better than I expected.” Or the reverse. I can see how bad press from someone who has not completely earned and completely does not deserve the privilege to have an opinion of said film, could be offensive, but if you think about it ” yeah we know our film sucks, but we want people to pay for before they say anything”, is twice as offensive.
Is it bad to buy a $60 video game, install the game with your registration code and then turn around and download the pirated version and use the “no cd crack” that way you can leave the game disk in it’s case so that it will not get scratched? So you are not pulling the disk out every single time you want to play the game you paid for ?
Should purchasing be considered a gamble?
If one friend tells you the media you are interested in is garbage, while another friend tells you it is the best thing since gravity, would it be wrong for you to download the media and try it out so you can decide for yourself ? That is of course if you are in the position to not be able to try your friend’s copy.
As far as software goes, it’s kind of the same situation. How do you know if something is worth having without knowing if it will serve your needs?
I believe it is theft when you know the product that you are obtaining is going to suite a need for you and you still decide to not pay for this product. It is theft when you yourself pirate the item then turn around and sell your copy or sell duplicates of this product. You are then cutting into the profits of the original maker of the product. I believe it is theft when a manufacturer creates a product and tells you it will fullfill your needs in one specific area, and the product turns out to not serve the purpose stated. I believe it is theft when a manufacture creates a music cd and sells you this cd for $20+ and on the whole disk, only one song is worth listening to. I believe it is theft when a manufacturer creates a cd $20+ and it only has two or three songs on it total. I believe it is theft when a musician decides to not create a cd and use a professional label yet turns around and splits up all of their music on a media sell site, like itunes and sells the items at the price greater than what they would have made through a label, I mean really, we don’t even get a hard copy of the media and the quality is far to low. It is wrong to justify any of these earlier mentioned statements, to decide to download a copy of these items and not show your apreciation by giving the money required to obtain such media.
but everyone should be able to sample.