I admit that I haven't gone through the entire thread, but damn, I am impressed with the flexibility demonstrated in some of the arguments here. People really can bend over backwards to justify (on an apparently sliding scale) ripping people off.
"They charge too much, so I can take it!"
"I wouldn't have bought it anyway, so I can take it!"
"It might suck, so I can take it!" (often coupled with "if I like it, I'll buy it", and I'd love to see the conversion rates on that promise).
"I don't like their business model, so I can take it!"
"I have to buy something else I don't want, so I can take it!"
As someone who has dabbled in the business of "taking it", I never was under the illusion that what I was doing was justified. I did it because it was free. That's the reason. You take because it's free.
The only thing I ever saw regarding any sort of moral obligation was if I "shared" or not. It's apparently something you should do when you take. I never did that, because I never felt any compunction to help the other takers take. The "honour among thieves" garbage just made me roll my eyes. Why waste my bandwidth so someone else can get in on the fun? I'm ripping someone off here -- why would I share? I don't like the price of gas either, but if I siphon a tankful from some a$$hole's Rolls Royce, I'm not going to help the next clown steal the hood ornament from the neighbour's Bentley.
People make movies and music in the hopes of getting paid. They spend money to make those things. Just like the people who make wallets, widgets, or cases of beer (and you can't just take two beers out of the box and put them in your pocket if you didn't want the other ten).
If you don't want to pay for it, don't. It's no sugar off my balls. They aren't ever going to stop you from taking it, but let's give up the charade that taking it is acceptable because you wouldn't have bought it, might not like it, or didn't want what else was packaged with it.
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