Piracy, whether it be of games, movies, software, or music is a pretty hot
topic these days. On one side you have people against piracy who usually claim
copyright should be protected and what people are doing is just plain stealing.
On the other side there are people who think attempts to squash piracy are
against someones "freedom" and argue that piracy doesn't affect the bottom line
in business.
I have been looking through a bunch of websites that one could say the
readers are more "supportive" of piracy and I noticed that what seems like a
majority of these people seem to also be vocal in U.S. politics. It also seems
many of these people lean more to the left of the political spectrum, although I
can't find any data to officially back that up with. However, I think it's an
interesting question to ask. Does ones political affiliation and beliefs lessen
or strengthen their stance on piracy?
Now before people get all bent out of shape, let me say I'm not accusing
someone of advocating piracy because they are more liberal or conservative, but
I do have my personal theory that one side is more receptive of the practice
than another. It's common to hear that people who are younger are typically
more receptive to piracy than someone much older, but you never here much about
their political, or even religious, preferences.
My belief is people who are more liberal, meaning fairly far left, will be
more likely to accept the practice of piracy. Why do I think that? Well first
of all, far left thinking is that capitalism is bad, and anyone who makes a
profit is somehow "evil". This also goes back to the reality that liberalism is
more in favor of entitlement, and that someone who makes money somehow "owes" it
back to society. This creates an attitude of basically "I don't care" and that
stealing someones copyrighted material doesn't mean anything because they are
retaliating against the "greedy" industry.
What is your opinion? Do you think an individuals political leaning affects
their stance on piracy, or do you think it has no connection at all?