Originally Posted by
drewmandan
Intellectual property is the one right that will seemingly be up for debate for the term of human existence. I can't see this being resolved...ever. On the one hand, people need to be rewarded for their works, but on the other, you can't expect to be able to deny a society its culture.
For me, I go on a case-by-case basis. For example, I almost never pay for music because musicians make more than enough money from concerts and merchandizing, and it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to write a song. Similarly, I usually pirate mediocre PC games, because a crappy game isn't worth $50. However, the games that are clearly superior do get my money. Same with movies; I will tend to pirate the cultural trash (like comedies) and pay for the cultural masterpieces (like epic movies that weren't shot over a weekend).