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Like I said, the act of being a criminal/thief what have you needs to be destigmatized, as you note everyone pretty much breaks the law at some points in their lives. It doesn't make them a bad person.
Something like illegally downloading an album is a minor wrong--but it should be a crime and have penalties tied to it. Minor penalties, delivered in a way to minimize stigma (say like the way minor crime is dealt with in other countries like Japan). But still dealt with like the theft it is. If you can't or don't want to pay for something, then don't own it. Go without it, check it out from a library. Listen to streaming music online etc.
There's no excuse or valid justification for obtaining a copy of something illegally. Things are much murkier on making copies of stuff you bought for your own personal use, being able to loan things to friends, or sell or give away things without keeping a copy for yourself etc. The laws there need to be much clearer.
But their should be laws against downloading copies of stuff you did not pay for in any format. The legal system has to adept as we move further and further toward ONLY having digital content in many areas as the types of crime (especially the type of theft) changes as we move from physical content to digital content.
But again, we're going to go in circles here as neither of us will change our minds. So again, lets just agree to disagree. Cheers!
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