buy/sell: complaining about people stealing digital media (music, etc.) is like complaining about the library?

[screechingdaughter027]

I'm leaning towards sell, though like me, often times the point of your question isn't really in the question at all. I doubt this is simply about drawing parallels between the library and pirating music, it's more about questioning the absurd morals that allows someone to deem one form of consumption to be fair, yet another as abhorrent behavior. To say it's fair to "borrow" a book without needing to pay the artist for their labor, yet it isn't fair to "steal" an artists work is hypocrisy, because they're essentially the same thing. There's contextual differences (which leads me to lean towards sell), but the end result is the same. The artist doesn't get paid. That said, both lead to valuable word of mouth. Many attempt to discredit this as being beni-ficial (cwuteyedidthair) but there are many fanbases built off piracy. The only difference is the way they're consumed and the way our current social constructs deems them, one being a place for learning while the other is a way for reprehensible derelicts to forgo paying the artist, when in actuality, they're the same. It's taught and internalized to be antipathetic towards it, because it's a new way of consuming media.

While I'm certainly sympathetic towards an artist who's work is pirated, musicians are affected less than someone like a game studio, simply because the majority of their profits are garnered through other endeavors aside from their albums. I'm not fond of an artist not being reimbursed, but I can rationalize it pretty easily, especially since many of these artist themselves support their artwork reaching as many people as possible. In the end, that's what I feel an artists goal should be, to somehow touch and affect another, even if it's just one person or if it's a million and the money that comes with it should just be a pleasant bonus, not the goal driving them.

tl;dr At the end of the day, a library and piracy have the same impact and the artist themselves shouldn't be cast as sympathetic figures.

All of this knowledge was beseeched upon me by God, whom told me that I needed to become a Messiah of the people, forever being a nobel vagabond...