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Notes -
I agree and I think that has changed over time. Some reasons.
-- I've swung towards paying for some things as I age. Part of this is that I am richer than I was as a child, and I consume less content and what I do consume is more obscure, so it is easier for me to pay for it. Part of it is that I can see content I like disappearing from the world. When I was a kid Borders and Barnes and Noble were everywhere, counting the Walden Books sub brand there were at least 5 corporate bookstores in my town. Now I think there is one Barnes and Noble left a couple towns over, and even that location is a shadow of itself. I shop for books exclusively at one of two local bookstores, if they don't have the weird book I want in stock they order it for me. When I was a kid, not buying a book at Borders was just saving money and avoiding giving it to the corporate villain from You've Got Mail or later to Amazon; now I'm very aware of the possibility that if the small bookstores go under I won't be able to get new books anywhere but Amazon. As a result I feel a certain responsibility, as a book lover, to buy new books from the small bookstore. This goes equally for small time bands whose albums I buy directly at concerts where before I'd pirate it, for blogs and podcasts where before I'd get it for free, for local independent movie theaters that show obscure films where before I'd sneak in, for all kinds of things. I used to take it for granted that there would be music, movie theaters, bookstores, books, etc. I've come to realize that if I don't support the things I want, they won't happen. I used to feel like some sucker would always pay for the things I wanted to exist, I've realized that might not happen. Is my singular effort futile? Probably, but what isn't?
-- Piracy used to be easier than doing it legally, now it is more difficult in a lot of cases. I only really pirate things if I have trouble finding them legally. There is more legal content than you can possibly make use of if you have an Amazon Prime subscription and a Spotify subscription, why bother illegally streaming? Moreover, the guy who was super into piracy and talked about it used to seem cool and in the know, he had access to things I didn't, I had only my paltry CD collection he had a library of millions of songs and movies. Now we both have access to millions of songs, I just pay a half hour a month in wages to have access to it all whenever I want. Now the guy who is still super into piracy strikes me as kind of annoying and hectoring, closer to a coupon clipper or the guy who refuses to pay for parking than to a guy who is getting one over on the system.
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