Originally Posted by
MK27
The first big "moral" factor with piracy (by this I mean, justification) is the popular titles. If you are a Steven King fan, you may recognize the man already has more money than anyone could ever need and certainly more than anyone could ever deserve. So why not pirate? I would extend this to include the authors of many textbooks, who are tenured professors, already make a fine living, and just want to make even more money by spending their office hours writing textbooks.
The other is that if you are a millionaire, you are suppose to pay $50 for a book. If you are dirt poor, you are suppose to pay the same. Distributors, retailers, etc. will gear their prices to a norm -- to make them affordable to the normal person. So if you have less than that (which is still a lot of people), they have may the decision to "price you out". In that case, who is going to feel guilty about stealing in the face of pure self-interest? When I was homeless, I would steal books and anything else I wanted, on occasion, if I could get away with it (I did). I didn't feel any guilt then and I still don't, altho now I do have a place to live and an income (still very humble and meager) I don't steal, I pay for something if I want it badly enough like a good citizen of capitalism.