What is your stance on piracy?

[Mafaveli]

 

I've graduated, so discuss it with me.

Copyright infringement is normally a civil tort - its only recently become a crime, and usually only pertains to higher levels of copyright infringement. If you are implying that copyright infringement is normally a crime, you are not only wrong, but you are bullshitting. You don't even care about the truth, and would rather just spout nonsense without any worry for the truth.

Seconldy, copyright infringement does not deny anyone else the use of a good. If I steal a pair of pants, no one else can buy that pair and there is a material loss for the good. Piracy can at best have "projected" losses, and that's about the best they can do. Sure you can point to Dreamcast as a company being killed by it, but that is about as much as a stretch as you can pull. Sega was already dying, and the PS2 was the death blow that finished the job. Piracy was the sissy slap that everyone seems to blame, rather than the really obvious problems.

Thirdly, intellectual property is not a god given right - it is a limitation on your your rights for the benefit of others. IP is not designed for their individual gain, it is supposed to benefit the whole of society. That's a very understandable idea - the arts and sciences advancement benefits everyone, and we should encourage them. However, when it no longer advances arts and sciences, and rather proves to damage society more than it benefits, the moral justification for IP goes down the drain. You can bitch and moan about how it's illegal, but as someone who claims to be an adult your knowledge that such black and white statements are nonsense seems to call that into question. It was technically illegal for blacks to marry whites, it was technically illegal for people to receive blowjobs, but it would be a stretch to call that immoral. Copyright infringement could theoretically deny someone that sale, but judging from the dozen or so studies on the subject, people who used napster were more likely to buy more CDs. The average person who got into copyright infringement was using it as a way to find new music. If they weren't going to buy a CD, as you are arguing college students don't, then it was probably unlikely that they would regardless.

I know you are trying to call all moral gray areas as black and white, but that is not how reality works.
Grow up and get off your high horse. I have a job (well actually I work two jobs), and work with kids who can see through your tripe.

Exactly, that somes up pretty much what I believe, not just the bolded part but pretty much the whole comment.