I know there are a lot of reasons why we pirate media with an intensity that would make actual pirates blush. We do it because we can, because it's easy, because there's no penalties, and because everyone else on the Internet does it. But most importantly, we do it because, deep down, we could not give less of a damn about the people who create it. The guys who create Game of Thrones, talented and hard-working though they may be, are simply outside our Monkeyspheres. Their livelihoods and general welfare don't just rank below ours. In our minds, they essentially don't exist.
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Also Maybe It's Actually the Content Providers' Fault?
On the other hand, maybe we're right to poop on the content providers a bit. This might sound a little twisted; after all, if we hate them so much, why are we interested in their content? Well, when we perceive that the content provider is a middleman, someone who isn't responsible for making the content so much as they are for marking up its cost, that might have something to do with it.
During the 1990s, a lot of pro-piracy rhetoric was based on arguments like this, rooted in the fertile soil of music industry hatred. The music industry did of course have a lot to answer for. Charging $20 for a CD, of which the actual band might see $2. Charging $20 for an album with only one good song on it. Price fixing. Everything to do with Ace of Base.
And sure, pirating the songs denied the actual artists (who we maybe don't hate) their $2 of income. But then we did it anyways, because they're rich, and that sounds like a good enough reason to hate them, too.
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Also, charging $20 for a CD with no good songs on it.
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