![]() Now, we know that the number of people sneaking in is greater than the number who buy tickets, but beyond that we have no way of knowing what things would look like if everyone was honest. Some of those people just sneak back in, but some storm off and vow never to set foot in the theater again. Sometimes they accidentally boot out a paying customer. They try to boot out people who don’t have tickets, but those people people loop right around and come back inside, like mice. Usually you have to pay for a ticket before you can find out what they’re going to do to you before they let you in, and you can’t get a refund if you refuse. You can no longer buy a ticket for a friend. Since realizing the great influx of people into the theater through the fire door, the theater managers have gone nuts. (Some of these would very probably find a way to pay for a ticket if they found they could no longer use the fire door.) Some of the people sneaking in do so because they are broke and can’t afford to buy a ticket. If the movie was free, they wouldn’t bother seeing it at all. They enjoy the thrill of jumping the fence and getting in more than they enjoy movies. They usually leave halfway through, often to sneak into some other movie. Some people sneak in, but rarely stay to the end. Some of them even mean it and occasionally do so. ![]() Some people sneak in and claim they will pay for a ticket on the way out if they liked the movie. Some people buy tickets, run outside, and come in the back way along with all of the leeches to avoid the invasion of their privacy. Some people have quit going to the movies outright. This was very annoying and insulting, and many people wouldn’t stand for it. When that plan failed, they began frisking customers as they came in. This was a mild annoyance, but had no impact on people coming in through the fire exit. To combat this, the theater owner first began hassling everyone as they came into the theater to make sure they had tickets. After all, “everyone else is doing it and we’re not hurting anyone.” The sense of scandal is gone. In the case we’re dealing with, so many people are sneaking in the fire exit that there is a certain herd comfort to the act. (We must assume the theater is infinite in size and all the seats offer the same view for this analogy to work.) But most people recognize that sneaking in is still wrong. Sure, it’s not “hurting” anyone – nobody becomes poorer by virtue of your viewing of the movie – and you are not depriving anyone else of the product. I think the closest analogy of piracy is the one Bruce offered in the comments: It’s like sneaking into a movie. ![]() Yesterday’s scourging of BioWare’s EA’s clumsy falsehoods led us back to the old discussion about software piracy being “theft”. If you don’t get it, this might help explain the joke.
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