Do you pirate? And do you justify pirating? i.e., what is your piracy philosophy?
Well, my friend, he's kinda poor he can't afford some books and some streaming services, so he pirates. He pirate books, audiobook and videos and other stuff. Sometimes he buys books he likes a lot out of loyalty to the author (yeah, I don't understand it either), he likes to read physical books, but yeah, if he hates the author or just wants to skim through it, he will download the book.
He usually doesn't like to pirate from small companies or professors who are trying to make a living by selling books, but from millionaires & plenty of mega corps which already have loads of money, he feels like it's the right move to pirate
Also, have you ever noticed that you have felt that the value of a product has decreased just because you didn't pay for it, thus you are less interested to read it? i.e., had you paid for the book, you would have more likely read that book.
He says he will buy stuff when his time is more valuable than money, let's all hope that day is soon.
I live outside the US market. As a rule I'll pay for whatever content is legally available in my country (netflix, disney+, steam etc) however there are certain publishers and/or content which is simply not offered through any channel. At that point they aren't going to see $ from me in any case, so I may as well pirate.
I am in same situation but additionally I only use Linux and some sellers (I.e amazon) would require you to install some software to wallowed to watch the content you bought. I don't want to install apps I have no clue what it does to my privacy and even if I wanted, its not available for Linux.
Another option is to buy the CD/DVD but I'd have to buy a DVD reader, pay for import customs and shipping. So I ed up paying more than the value of the product itself.