Imagine a cinema has a peeping view from the outside. Is it immoral to peek through the view? I.e: is it considered stealing to do that?
If instead of the cinema, the place was a classroom. Or a workshop, are you considered a theive?
There’s a drive in cinema in my city surrounded by residential houses. If you look over your fence you can see the screen, and if you have a radio you can tune into the audio. Free movies nearly every night of the week.
Just to add a thought: big film studios screw over the VFX artists all the time. There are stories of a movie winning “Best Visual Effects” award and the VFX house that actually did all the hard work going bankrupt because they didn’t get paid enough by the big studio to make ends meet. IIRC, Life of Pi was one such occasion. Isn’t that piracy, too: owner class stealing labor from working class.
One could possibly argue that piracy is the inevitable product—nay, an honoured practice—of capitalism because it all boils down to exploiting someone’s labor for your own benefit without fair compensation for the laborer. Big corporations exploit 3rd world countries to get their resources for as cheap as possible; pirates exploit movie, film and game studios to get their entertainment for as cheap as possible. Circle of life; business as usual🙃
Isn’t that piracy, too: owner class stealing labor from working class.
Wage theft is actually by far the biggest kind of theft in the US, and film studios and game studios are well known culprits. And piracy has absolutely zero impact on that wage theft. You make a good argument.
You wouldn’t download a car, would you?
I mean, if an event is walled-off and admission is charged to spectate the event (a movie screening, concert, ball game, etc), you could absolutely argue that it’s stealing–but it depends on what the ticket price covers. Does it just buy you a seat? If so, then the people inside aren’t paying for the content either, just for a seat. It would be stealing to go in and sit down, but not to stand outside and watch. If the ticket price pays for access to the performance, then yeah, it’s stealing.
But is it immoral? Idk. Is stealing as an act always immoral? If you’re starving, is it immoral to steal from big chain grocery stores to feed your family? Is it immoral for a homeless person to sleep in an abandoned house that’s techically owned by a bank but they’re not doing anything with it? Many would say those things are not immoral. Some would say it’s immoral that our system allows for people to be without food or shelter when we have so much excess. But then there’s entertainment. Is entertainment a need? Is it important for our mental health? Is it a luxury for people with time to waste? Is someone losing something? If so, who? Do they deserve it? Are they earning it legitimately?
Morality is weird and complicated. It’s often incredibly subjective. What kind of world do you want to live in? Do you believe art and entertainment should be free? Do you believe artists should be paid? Do you believe event venues should be paid? What do you support? Those aren’t meant to be leading questions at all, but they are things you should think about. What do you believe in, and are your actions in line with those beliefs? Who do you want to be?
That’s just my 2¢.
what would you be stealing?
