Amorality of Piracy

A good friend just downloaded and burned a computer game for me. Illegally, of course. Do I feel bad? Heck no, I’m excited to try out the game. Why doesn’t my conscience bother me? Because unlike real stealing which is morally wrong and mala in se, piracy is mallum prohibitum and is not immoral at all. I know no one will go to hell just because of software piracy. Piracy, contrary to the popularized slogan, is not stealing – technically and common sensically.

But why is it depicted as evil? So that others may earn money. Let us analyze the numbers: those usually protected by anti-piracy laws are those with capability to mass produce their software – hence they already have money. On the other hand, those who buy pirated software are those who cannot afford originals – hence they do not have money. This clearly leads to the conclusion that anti-piracy laws are fashioned to protect those with money against those who don’t.

Let’s go a leap deeper. The rationale of anti-piracy laws is to promote and encourage human knowledge. Inventors allegedly invent for money. This is a stupid rhetoric. Humans have been inventing since time immemorial not because of money but either because of necessity or passion. No one would stop creating what he thinks is a good idea just because he won’t profit from it. In poor third world countries, a paradigm that allows those with useful intellectual property deprive others from it unless they are paid would amass wealth to a few at the expense of the entire consuming society. It would benefit more people if the few who have specialized intellectual properties such as software are not given powers to hoard something that would benefit or make the society happy.

So, if asked which is more wrong: not allowing few inventors to profit OR not allowing the entire world access to existing inventions, I would answer the former. May it be wrong in the realm of social policy or morality. So please, do not try to appeal to my conscience by showing a commercial saying “you wouldn’t steal a car, you wouldn’t steal a purse… piracy is stealing.” Because it is not stealing and paying for originals at the expense of my meager salary (instead of giving my salary to the poor, hehe!) bothers my conscience more.

My point: do not mix morality in arguments against software piracy. Or at the very least, such arguments should be amoral.