The Conflicting Ethics of Piracy in the Modern World

Now that the how has essentially been answered, the real question is...

Why do we pirate?

And it is truly "we" in the collective sense, because it is all of us who participate in illegally downloading digital commodities. Music record sales aren't dropping 30-60% because of a few online anarchists living in their mother's basement, society, as a cohesive unit, is participating.

There should be an app for that. [Original]

But why? Not a single mainstream religion condones theft - Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism all explicitly say that stealing is wrong. Yet we continue to visit The Pirate Bay, and despite new legislation, both proposed domestically and applied internationally to cull it, they are on the rise, not the wane. 

The answer, easily enough, is the same for reasons of cyber bullying.  The animosity provided by that magical cocktail of an internet connection and a computer monitor allows people to say, watch, and passively allow horrible, horrible things. The internet has desensitized an entire online culture to grotesqueness and immorality. There are a multitude of shock images and videos that serve to prove and feed this argument that circulate more specific communities like /4/chan and various other forums. 

When any individual sits behind a computer and connects, even when name, age, and location are divulged, there is still a sense of emboldened anonymity that touches every Human Being. The Ten Commandments have less significance when you're laughing at an old woman falling down an up escalator whilst listening to an illegally downloaded Shakira album. 

 Note: stats on illegally downloaded graphs not shown.

I think that's like dividing by 0. Or something. [Source]  

The internet, while providing the world with priceless resources such as connectivity on a global scale and endless sources of entertainment and knowledge, has also come with a price - nobody needs to know who you, as an individual, are; and it is this sense of detached individualism that allows a person to put aside their morals while on the internet.

This concept can be extended to any node of the internet, one of the most scary and "popular" being the group known as Anonymous. The individuals associated with this community never divulge personal information with each other nor anyone else, and basically do whatever the hell they want to the online community. They're fond of finding individual's personal information and leaking it online, as well as DDoS attacks. In one instance, they even hacked a network security firm that had been contracted by the government. That's like beating Charlie Sheen to death with a bag of cocaine (hint: this is impossible). 

I think you win when Charlie Sheen Overdoses. [Source]

But why?

Because they can.When making their threats to various organizations and individuals, they only carry out some (with varying degrees of intensity) - namely those that can be done on a computer (hacking). On the other hand, whenever they make a threat about something in physical space, they never accomplishing anything other than congregating in small protests wearing Guy Fawkes masks. 

I'm not trying to say anyone who pirates online is a hacker has the capability or motive to do the sort of  things Anonymous does - they are merely an extreme example of what this kind of mental state is capable of accomplishing. What I am trying to argue is that online piracy is a serious problem, not just for musicians, game developers, the film industry, publishing companies, or even consumers - but for the positive, forward progression of society as a whole.

Now he's off to find some ale and wenches. [Source]