Morality and downloading

[Jenny A]

So if someone couldn't afford a BMW car, but could magically clone one, you would be against it because BMW missed out on the chance to sell one more car?  What if they cloned a banana?  Would they be morally wrong because Chiquita lost a potential sale?

Sure new copies of programs, videos, music, prints, etc. can be made at no cost to the creator.  But the cost of the original is a dozy.  If the maker of a BMW were able and required to make limitless free copies, than making the original would be all cost and no profit and no one would have a BMW.

There are times when giving away free copies to those who can't afford them is a moral obligation.  Medicine for actual diseases (as opposed to blemishes) food, and shelter come to mind.  Entertainment, gourmet food, mansions, BMWs, etc. do not.

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Now I remember the argument for pirating.  Found it by reading this:

http://bigthink.com/the-moral-sciences-c...he-economy

But what happens to the money the pirates would have otherwise spent on those legal copies? They don’t eat it!

(1) in the case that the counterfeit good has similar quality to the original, consumers have extra disposable income from purchasing a less expensive good, and (2) the extra disposable income goes back to the U.S. economy, as consumers can spend it on other goods and services.

As one expert consulted by GAO put it, “effects of piracy within the United States are mainly redistributions within the economy for other purposes and that they should not be considered as a loss to the overall economy.”

Let me re-write that for you:

But what happens to the money the pirates would have otherwise spent on those legal copies? They don’t eat it!


(1) in the case that tools stolen out of Sionach's garage have similar quality to tools bought at the store, consumers have extra disposable income from purchasing a less expensive good, and (2) the extra disposable income goes back to the U.S. economy, as consumers can spend it on other goods and services.

As one expert consulted by GAO put it, “effects of piracy within the United States are mainly redistributions within the economy for other purposes and that they should not be considered as a loss to the overall economy.”

Or to put it another way, whether the economy would be helped or harmed generally by theft, does not make theft moral.