finite.style

I've been following a great online series (it might be in the printed edition as well, but who knows?) called "The Download Decade" on globeandmail.com (follow the series at http://beta.globeandmail.com/news/technology/download-decade).

A bit of background on me; I work for a very large software vendor and our primary source of income is software license sales and maintence revenue. I also work in sales, so what puts food in my fridge, gas in my car, and pays my mortgage is folks being honest and purchasing the licenses legally. I am fortunate enough to sell to large enterprise customers (meaning their annual revenue is $1 billion or above), so the likelihood of any of them pirating software is slim to none, but it does raise an interesting moral question for me.

Why am I so laissez faire about downloading music, movies, TV shows, and apps when intellectual property is the very thing that allows me to live my life? I have friends and family who were previously adamantly opposed to downloading pirated music and movies, but once they saw how easy it was, and how legitimate it all seems, it was no longer an issue.

So is that all that stops us from moving from theft of intagible property, such as software and media files, to theft of physical property? There was a thought provoking survey within the article which asked readers to answer what they thought was worse: theft of a $1 chocolate bar from a store or downloading a $65 video game. Really, in terms of dollar value it's a no brainer. And just to add a twist, change that from downloading the game to stealing it from a store shelf. Is there really a difference? End result is the same isn't it, you've acquired software you haven't paid for.

I can't come up with an answer to my question, because as rational as the argument against downloading and piracy seems, it really doesn't bother me, and I know I'm far from being the only one. Have we entered an age where it's open season on anything you can download, be it movies, TV shows, ebooks, music, software, etc. If so where is the incentive for new artists, developers, producers, writers, to put the time and effort in to their craft if they know that of 100 people who will enjoy their work, 98 are doing so without paying?

fnS