I see much use of the word "piracy" in the comments as an unquestionably derogatory term. I'd like to question it. In terms of the current capitalist model, we

I see much use of the word "piracy" in the comments as an unquestionably derogatory term. I'd like to question it. In terms of the current capitalist model, we're agreed, piracy is a bad thing: People pirate media, the industry suffers monetary losses, the media producers don't get paid enough to keep producing, and as a result of all this there is less media. I'm with you. What if the entire premise that this was a bad thing was wrong though? The only thing that would go away is _this iteration_ of media creation and distribution. "In the old days", things like music and stories were _meant_ to be copied, shared, and even expanded, by everyone. I'd argue this was a better system because it's literally what "culture" means: "the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively" — my Apple dictionary, don't know it's source ;) The standards were high, because the motivation was in great part the art itself, not as much the monetary gains (compared to today). Of course the artist has to earn money to live, but they used to before too! This part is a whole argument in itself, so I won't expand on it here. My point — and believe it or not, I have a point — is that technology seems to be naturally supporting my world view on this, and we're trying to artificially cripple it not to.