After reading this article on Louis CK, and the innovative way he is delivering his art, I started to reflect on my role in digital piracy. In high school, I used to buy burned CDs for $5 a pop. My freshman year of college was spent using Kazaa, Limewire and a few other flavors. Then came torrents, which allowed us to download larger files at greater speeds with a higher success rates. This is when I truly discovered music. The Beatles, Dylan, The Beastie Boys; the artists that greatly affected and shaped my sensibilities. Nowadays, I pirate nearly all of my content. Music. Movies. TV Shows. Games. Software. Comics. Books. Before I knew it, I had filled up a 500 GB hard drive with digital content, most of which I never payed for.
And now I'm starting to feel bad about it.
There are three main reasons I, and many others, pirate content. I/we use these reasons to justify our actions, in an attempt to make ourselves feel better.
"The artists aren't hurting for my money"
Although there is some truth to this statement, using it as a justification is folly. I've spent thousands on concerts, merchandise, movie tickets and music games, giving the artists more than what they would have earned through CD sales. However, who am I to determine what someone should earn on whatever goods I purchase? If the CD or DVD is out of my budget, then I don't get to have it. Ultimately this argument says more about me than anyone else.
"There is no other way to get this content"
This argument was the origin of the bootleg. People used to trade tapes of concerts or martial arts movies not aired in the US. Nowadays, everything is everywhere. Even the most obscure live performances or Japanese game shows are only a YouTube search away. The problem comes with current stuff that is limited in release. A handful of mainstream TV shows won't allow their content on Hulu's portable players, and some acts like AC/DC won't put their music on iTunes. Well, if they don't want to make their content easily available, maybe they don't deserve my (hypothetical) money.
"I download to keep up to date"
This is probably the biggest reason I pirate content. Every week, I download a few TV shows and comics. I feel that if I don't consume this content quickly, I'll fall behind in the public discussion. But, I've realized I can't keep up with everything, nor should I try to. I have stacks of books I've never read and Netflix has more content than I can ever consume. There's more than enough stuff out there to distract me. And every time I download that latest single, I start to feel that I cheapen the my digital library. There's only a few groups I truly love, but they have become buried by thousands of flavor-of-the-months. Do I download because I can't afford to acquire the content, or do I acquire the content because I can download?
After all is said and done, I don't know what I'm going to do? Do I delete my entire digital library, and build it back up through legal purchases? Do I just by legal stuff from here on out? Do I stuff a few bucks into an envelope and send it to the artists? A combination of these? I don't know, but I feel like it's something I'm going to wrestle with for a while.
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