[fixermark]

FWIW, sometimes when I forget my wallet at the corner store, the clerk will just let me take the stick of gum because he knows I'm good for it later.

There's a lot of reasons that analogies between mom and pop face-to-face businesses and massively-middleman'd intermediary transactions break down; this is just one of them.

[Jtsummers]

> the clerk will just let me take the stick of gum because he knows I'm good for it later.

So you're still going to pay for it. That's not the same as the story here, where they paid for it, got a refund, then got it for "free". They aren't intending to go to the content creators and hand them $5 for it later.

[esharte]

The $5 isn't going to the content creators.

[Jtsummers]

A portion of it is. But regardless, via pirating nothing goes to the content creators. Not one penny. If you actually like content, at some point you need to pay for it or you won't get more of what you like.

[sqeaky]

The creator's are often paid and out of the equation. In the most common case the $5 literally does not go the creators.

You might argue that publishers and distributors will hold their portion of the $5 for the next piece of content.