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Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
And thus marks the breakdown of society.
"What is easiest for them" is NEVER what counts. That's the logic of the rats in the alleys and the flies on a carcass, not of humans in civilization. No one lives in isolation; it's time everyone on this planet--and especially those who take advantage of technology others provided for them and plug into these stoopid tubes--accepted that they are part of a society, and in a society, there are rules to follow.
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Originally Posted by The Wealth of Nations
[E]very individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain; and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.
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As with anyone, Adam Smith got many things wrong. However, his way of economic thinking sure seems to have helped improve every industrialized country in the world.
And it's in direct opposition to your stated definition of society, above.
People do what will benefit them the most, rules and laws be damned, in aggregate. The correct way to handle piracy is not to whine about moral turpitude, but to make it worth their while to purchase a legal copy. Incentivize, as fjtorres said.