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Someone who purchased the content and then copied it has violated the agreement, you are an accessory to the violation of the compact. And you know damn well when you do it that you're participating in violating this compact. People who knowingly fence stolen goods are behaving unethically.
So? I'm not a party to this compact. No privity of contract here.
This is begging the question, since you have not established that "copied without permission" is equivalent to "stolen".
Do you agree that the original copier is behaving unethically?
it's the equivalent of a violation of a contract. I work in a sector where I have nonpublic information that it would be a crime for me to trade off of, it is also a crime for me to inform anyone of this public information and a crime for them to trade off of it despite them having no hand in the contract. We have laws and rules, these laws and rules are broadly there to solve the problem of producing information to have substantial upfront cost and near zero copying costs. I'm not saying these laws couldn't be better but defecting on them without another solution is unethical because you're free riding and expecting everyone else to cover your share, and if everyone were to do this we would get far less informational goods.
You and your fellows in this thread have no propose alternatives to the regime in place, you're just willing to defect on it because it's easy and that's the totality of your argument. I am unimpressed.
What does it matter? The contract imposes no obligation on me.
I am not going to accept as given that securities law is ethically valid either.
I can't "defect" because I was not party to the agreement you proposed.
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