Yes, this thread is inspired by the one where OP mentioned his colleague pirating DQ11. No, this isn't a parody thread.
As a kid growing up in suburban India, piracy was the way of life for me and all of my friends. The Windows license was too expensive, so all our PCs (even ones at school) had pirated Windows copies (along with a bunch of complimentary software like Photoshop that the computer shop would install on your PC when you purchased one). My parents (like most asian parents) frowned heavily on gaming as an activity (still do), so buying games was out of the question. Same thing for movies and TV shows. Besides, there was no regional pricing, so everything was prohibitively expensive.
As an adult, thanks to regional pricing, I do pay for games and OTP services, but my thoughts about piracy are very different to those of first world folks. I think the whole point of copyright is to make sure that the creator of a work gets enough money to be able to live a comfortable life and keep creating. As such, I believe the morality of piracy depends on surrounding circumstances.
Hence the poll, to find out what Era thinks. You can choose more than one option.
I'll leave you with a quote from musician Jeff Tweedy-
"A piece of art is not a loaf of bread. When someone steals a loaf of bread from the store, that's it. The loaf of bread is gone. When someone downloads a piece of music, it's just data until the listener puts that music back together with their own ears, their mind, their subjective experience. How they perceive your work changes your work.
Treating your audience like thieves is absurd. Anyone who chooses to listen to our music becomes a collaborator."
