Morality and downloading

[Napoléon]

It seems to me that very many people do download things, and with a clean conscience, because they don't believe that any social contract exists, and that downloading is therefore a-moral rather than immoral.  Ideas?

A-moral, perhaps not. Just not so immoral that people give a shit. Let's face it. The vast majority of companies and people that are being "stolen" from when people pirate are so far above the average person in terms of wealth that people just don't give a fuck, and considering so many people do it anyway it lessens the overall feeling of guilt associated with breaking the law or stealing. 

I'm of the opinion that calling it stealing is questionable at best anyway. For me, it's not the same as walking into a store and and taking a disc off a shelf, then walking out with it. It's not the same as stealing a car for instance. You aren't able to make multiple copies of the same car instantaneously. I think the comparison many people draw with traditional "stealing" and piracy online is not a fair one in the slightest. They're two completely different things IMHO. 

Then there's the issue of whether it even affects sales, or even improves sales in certain cases. Minecraft and Game of Thrones are good examples of how piracy can actually benefit companies. Ofcourse there's examples where it's the opposite, but frankly, it all just adds to the murky waters of whether people are actually doing much wrong anyway. Because even in instances where it can be bad for companies, there's instances where piracy doesn't do shit to companies sales. When someone pirates a song, or a movie, there's not a lost transaction. Despite what people think you can't say "this guy would of otherwise bought said song or movie". It's impossible to really adequately assess the level of damage, if any, that piracy has on these mega corporations.


With all that in mind, I think for many people piracy is such a minor thing that they just don't really care that much. It may well be immoral, it's obviously breaking the law. But it's kind of like jaywalking in terms of the level of offence many people consider it. While people know it's against the law, they know the chances of them actually being caught and 'told off' for doing it are incredibly small, and it's also similar in the sense that many people don't think it's that much of an offence in the first place.


My 2 cents.