I am not debating the notion of stealing. I am pointing out the difference in stealing digital content and a physical item, as per your example of cannabis rippers. They are not stealing digital copywrited photographs, they are stealing the physical item. Stealing a digital item costs the people nothing and doesn't effect them in the slightest.
I download music i like, i do not deny that, but to say it's bs that they wouldn't have bought it instead is silly. I can think of much more worthwhile things to spend money on, so let's say pirating was out of the question, i could pay the money for the song, or i could just make do without it or find a perfectly legal workaround. When we stopped paying our PRS music license at work, the boss was quite adament that we couldn't use the radio, so i just played equally good music from friends or artists who were happy for music to be played without the need for PRS licensing agreements.
And as i said, this is in my case, not everyones, but no, i would not buy any of the music i listen to. If i really want to listen to it then well, i kinda just turn the radio on, or youtube on, or go onto any of 100 perfectly legal online music radio site things. Any music or game or film that i genuinely want, i pay money for. In fact a lot of stuff i do buy, i would not have bought if i had not pirated it in the first place. I stole modern warfare, loved it, so bought a propper copy, not for online play, can't stand the thing, but just to pay my dues, i stole race driver grid, which is fully usable in pirated form online and offline, i went out and bought a copy for both myself and a friend because it was worth the money. Most music or games i pirate, i play or listen to a few times and then nothing else, because it wasn't that good.
The short story as i said, is that in my situation, it is genuinely costing them nothing in lost sales and in fact has actually increased their sales as a result of my pirating and deeming the product worth supporting.
