Fr tho basically what /u/AnimalsDream said

The more you pirate the more hyped and disappointed you’ll be about things you’d otherwise never have known about. It’s a double edged blade. Your criteria grows. You spend less on highly advertised products and more on niche things most haven’t heard of. But when pirating as an act of boycott you also risk growing attachment to the product or franchise you’re pretending to sabotage. So if it sounds ethically correct to pirate something instead of purchasing it to harm someone in the production chain, don’t do either. Most people will just preorder a collector’s edition for another of their releases as soon as they forget or relax about what upset them. Piracy isn’t theft, it’s generosity, accessibility and preservation.

The US Supreme Court said it’s cool for LLMs to pirate shit for their garbage so it’s free game. Pirate everything. Support indie developers and artists though if you dug some of the stuff you pirated and have the means. I pirate manga all the time but still like having a lot of the physical copies so I end up doing that a lot even though they’re usually raking in money

I mean, they are just doing a global “exception” for AI training all together so why bother? The copyright law is not equally applied to everyone.

Pirate anything you want, and buy from anyone you want to support.

Whatever you want. Copyright was literally invented to steal from creators anyway.

When it comes to music I try to buy the stuff I like (mostly flacs) on bandcamp Fridays (certain days of the year where bandcamp charges 0% fees from the creators).

If it’s indie/small/mid-sized creator I’d like to see more of. They also sell vinyl and other merch which is rly cool

Everyone has different preference on what they would/wouldn’t pirate so it your prerogative what feels right to you.

Everything.

Like, i pay screenwriters by bringing them lunch while they collect cans around town and actors by tipping on lunch, but you, by paying at a movie theatre, generally do not.

Basically: should i care about ethics capitalist ideology?

No.

The system is literally genociding people, destroying the planet, etc. It’s a major mistake to take their “ethics” seriously. It’s just another grift. Enjoy the natural freedom of information while you still can.

You should only feel bad about pirating art made by small independent artists, and even then only if you don’t have the disposable income to easily afford it.

Piracy is an actually victimless crime, you aren’t depriving anyone of anything except your hypothetical dollars. And that’s only a loss if you were going to spend them in the first place. Then add the fact that selling digital goods at all is basically a massive scam…

Also, in many cases it’s actually better for the artist to donate directly to them than to buy their products from a store that’s probably taking a cut.

yeah its unethical to give corporations money and should be avoided whenever possible

You’ve conflated laws and ethics. Does piracy violate some laws in some jurisdictions? Unquestionably. Is every single law ethical? Unlikely.

That’s a very ambiguous and loaded question.

Do what your ethics dictates. There is no right or wrong answers.