Media Quicksand
Hearing that the new Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition rulebooks have already been pirated digitally perfect from a PDF print proof two weeks before the books actually go on sale shouldn't surprise me. It's a belly shot to an already struggling industry that's trying to reinvent itself for another generation.

D&D books being pirated isn't the end-all and be-all. It's a blip on the radar. Still, little tangents like this tend to snowball into larger questions for me. In this case, it's about stealing media and what that means about who we are.

Yes, I said "stealing". It's not a protest against Big Media Inc™, "just a sample", "hard to find", "too expensive" or whatever other bullshit excuse you've concocted to justify doing it. Endless perfect digital copies are not the same as demos, cassette mix tapes or photocopies for personal use, sorry. Sampling dozens of products for free and then buying one occasionally if you feel like supporting it doesn't make everything okay either. Go to a library.

Far be it from me to talk atop some lofty perch of puritanical superiority- TV shows, books, documentaries, games and other software all ripple along my network. Even still, it's something I think about quite a bit lately as I get more involved with these industries.

Heavy handed corporations point to blatant and constant theft impacting their bottom lines while they try to tighten their hold even more on the media and its creators, hurting creativity and the source of their material. End users ask for ultimate flexibility in format and distribution and not to be treated like criminals even while they take everything they can get without regard to ownership or morals.

There's an all-pervasive sense of "grab all you can get" because if they don't, then someone else will anyways. The anonymity of the internet makes all of this "acceptable" because there's no one actively standing there telling you not to do it and you're not getting caught.

Our role models and figures of authority are just as flawed and corrupt as we are, if not more so. They've shown us that getting ahead involves breaking the rules, tearing your opponents down and screwing everyone else while not being held accountable. Do what you want, just make sure you don't take the blame if anything goes wrong.

The companies are going insane because you're stealing from them and they can't stop it.
You're stealing from them because they're greedy, faceless and you can get away with it.
Moral integrity not included, on all sides.

It's a snake eating it's own tail.
Make sure you get your fill before it's all gone.

I really hope successive generations emerge smart enough to break this ridiculous cycle. We've done a terrible job so far of teaching them how things should be done.