[httpsterio]

Does anyone still shoplift? /s

Yes, people still steal. Torrenting is usually more convenient, but for media that actually cost a ton of money to produce, I still feel iffy about stealing it. I would never recommend it to anyone when buying and paying for media is still an option.

Even if something like Ghibli movies might not conveniently be available for on-demand streaming, I still think everyone is under the moral obligation to plan ahead and buy it on a more traditional format rather than to resort to piracy. It is your own short-sightedness if you can't anticipate the need beforehand and order it in time.

If for some reason media can't be bought new anymore and your money isn't good anywhere, then by all means pirate it. I consider that it has at that point entered a public domain of sorts.

[22c]

Piracy isn't stealing. Many people have been over this. You've been brainwashed if you think it's stealing.

It's still against the law in many places, but to call it stealing is just spreading misinformation and propaganda.

[nomel]

I think "stealing" is the semantically/technically incorrect term that's used as a sort of justification for not compensating the creator of a work, who paid to create that work, even though that work is considered valuable to the person using/watching it.

[bengotow]

Hmm - is there a good summary of this argument I could read? I torrented many years ago and it always felt like stealing and still does. Seems more or less equivalent to shoplifting to me from a moral standpoint, would be curious to read into this!

(I'm assuming this is not the "oh I actually pay and I just want to watch it on an unsupported device" argument)

[pcroh]

If I shoplift a bag of Doritos, the shop has one fewer bag of Doritos.

If I pirate a show, it doesn't disappear from Disney's hard drives.

[lillesvin]

People use "steal" like that all the time. "You stole my idea." "He stole my look!" "She stole my song." Etc... So I don't really think that's a very good argument.

[vinylkey]

What's a good word for "obtaining digital content without paying for the right to possess said digital content"?

[lonelappde]

The shop doesn't care about the Doritos. The owner isn't going to eat them. The shops only care about getting paid by who takes the Doritos.

[sli]

Any particular reason that you're interchanging two words that are not interchangeable?

[httpsterio]

stealing, torrenting or piracy?