> Pirating movies, music, software and so on strikes me as a mostly selfish act
Well, it is. Just like any form of protest. When copyright is 14 years again, and when content will be available on a buy-once-for-ever, lend-to-friends, inheritable, anywhere-in-the-world basis, I'll start paying for movies and music again. In the meantime, I'll just buy stuff from the independent artists I like to support them.
> When copyright is 14 years again, and when content will be available on a buy-once-for-ever, lend-to-friends, inheritable, anywhere-in-the-world basis
In the U.S., all but the first thing is true today for the vast majority of media. Some is encumbered in objectionable ways. And you have the option of buying almost any media in a way that makes it not really yours. But nobody is making you do any of these things.
If you want to buy a movie or album, you can go buy it on a disk. Problem solved.
(I see that you also say "anywhere in the world" but I'm not sure what you mean by this. If you were happy with copyright law in your country, why would objectionable copyright laws abroad justify disregarding fair laws at home?)
I'm from Slovenia, and we don't (didn't, maybe) have access to things like iTunes, Google Play, Netflix, ... Now I'm in the UK, but I imagine that if I bought a Netflix/Spotify subscription and went abroad (e.g. to Slovenia), it would stop working. So I prefer to download movies. For music, yes, you can buy mp3s from e.g. iTunes, so it's less of a problem.
Last time I checked, they had some confusing restrictions... Like you can't download stuff, or can only download so much, so when you're abroad without a free 3G connection, it's basically useless. Maybe they've changed it, though.
Well, it is. Just like any form of protest. When copyright is 14 years again, and when content will be available on a buy-once-for-ever, lend-to-friends, inheritable, anywhere-in-the-world basis, I'll start paying for movies and music again. In the meantime, I'll just buy stuff from the independent artists I like to support them.