I came into this topic and read through it, and the further in I got the more I could feel my blood pressure rising. This is as a person who abhorrs piracy - who bought a physical copy of Mother 3 long before the fan translation was finished, and bought a copy of EarthBound off of eBay when there's no good moral reason to do so.
Here I am, ready to go on a vicious tirade, pushing it to the limit of what i know I can get away with without getting banned - and then, light.
WereKitten and killergran (HOLY SHIT KILLERGRAN ISN'T DEAD) phrased the whole thing nicely and succinctly.
There are many cases where pirating is not morally justifiable (I have ehard arguments that piracy is never justifiable, even if I do not agree with them) but equating it with theft is disingenuous and flagrantly incorrect.
Edit: Carl I swear to God.
