We're talking about people pirating movies and video games and music. That's the product. And it applies to anything. If I want something, I need to pay for it. That's how the world works.
A beautiful video game made by someone who quit working for Bethesda. He's a solo, self-published developer. Let me guess, You have no conscience that would stand in the way of stealing from him either.
All that's happening here is a bunch of computer nerds have figured out how to get things for free, and declare they have the right to steal things simply because they can.
Same thing as all the looters in California who know that they can steal up to $1,000 of merchandise from any brick and mortar store, with no consequences. So gangs of kids in black hoodies are going into stores and filling up their bags and running out the door with $999 of unpaid merchandise per kid, and there's nothing any of the store clerks can do, and the police won't even come out to intervene.
So now all the stores can do is lock up all the merchandise behind plexiglass cases and now any normal Shopper has to ask a store employee to unlock each item they want to purchase, and the employee has to carry it to the front of the store until the customer pays for it.
Is this the kind of world you want to live in?
I mean I kinda wish we could go back to the days when people's hands were cut off when they're caught stealing. That might incentivize people to stop stealing stuff that other people produced for sale in order to earn a livelihood.
All that’s happening here is a bunch of computer nerds have figured out how to get things for free
No, all that's happened is that the state has convinced you that it's reasonable to grant someone a monopoly on the expression of an idea that lasts something like 120 years. I bet you've never even stopped to question that, or that you even know what the length of the original copyright term is. I bet you don't know the history of Hollywood, and how it ties in with copyright infringement. Or, how when the US was a new country it immediately ignored all the copyrights imposed by the British monarch.
Same thing as all the looters in California who know that they can steal up to $1,000 of merchandise from any brick and mortar store, with no consequences
Suuuuure... That happened. And now you're conflating theft with copyright infringement again. They're not at all the same.
and running out the door
Why would they be running out the door if there are no consequences? It's almost as if there would be consequences if they were caught.
Is this the kind of world you want to live in?
You mean, the current world? The one that works according to the rules you're advocating?