this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
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How do you feel about jumping the turnstile at a train station?
Counter question: Do you think that running libraries is theft?
Public Lending Right programs exist in 35 countries to compensate authors whose works are in libraries.
Great! Let's do that for any type of media!
They do already.
Amoral at worst. Public transportation shouldn't have a fee at use. Tax the rich, invest in transport
Depends on the circumstances I guess, but no matter how I feel about it people jumping the turnstile aren't stealing the train.
Are they stealing a ride?
I don't like this analogy, because there's a real, albeit small, cost to the subway of that free ride, in terms of fuel and increased maintenance. Digital piracy has literaly no real cost to the producer except the nebulous "lost sale."
It should be a free service anyway. Without free public transport, democracy does not exists. Same reason healthcare and education should be. So sure, you are “stealing” a ride - something that should be yours anyway because people are not born with the ability to travel kilometers of cityscapes, something that is now mandatory to survive and thrive.
You're also potentially blocking a seat that could be used by a paying passenger, and the operator will statistically run more/longer trains at higher cost to cope with increased demand.
I dunno, I mean are the train company allowed to take my money and then go "sorry we fell out with the fuel company so we're just gonna keep your money and not take you to your destination. Soz babe x"
You wouldn't download a train?
In that case you're actually using a limited resource: space on a train. And by occupying it you're preventing someone else from using it (assuming a full train). Copying media doesn't cost any resources (ignoring the tiny amounts of electricity) or interfere with anyone else's ability to use that resource.
They don't compare.
What if that train is regularly running under capacity, or you are just standing?
You're technicall still using the company's resources (it costs some energy to run the empty train), so I still don't think it really compares to piracy.
But since they are miniscule compared to what they are wasting by running largley empty trains I think it's morally ok in that case.