Er, how does it weaken the economy? The money that the corporations don't get doesn't actually vanish in a puff of smoke, it's still in posession of economic actors, who either purchase something else or invest it in a bank/stock.
What it does is reduce the profit of those corporations, which may make their business unsustainable and lead to this market shrinking, which may cause economic instability while people reorganize their effort towards another market. Those are all hypotheticals though, because the industries affected by piracy are all growing fairly rapidly.
Does competition weaken the economy? There's plenty of examples(e.g. computer hardware) where competition has eroded profit and changed the market dynamics, especially for new entrants. Do clearance sales weaken the economy? Free samples? Does generic medicine hurt the economy? There's so many cases of corporations not realizing the profits they might have wanted, but I don't see how they weaken the economy.
Well my friends who pirate just hoard the money they would otherwise be spending. If you're at the point where spending on entertainment would come out of money, that you would otherwise spend on something more worthwhile, you shouldn't be watching movies and listening to music in the first place! You should be working and bettering your economic position!
Not everyone can afford to have fun and that's ok. Some people's place in life is to be workers.
Lol. Do they keep their hoarded money under a matress? If it's in a bank account it's being actively used. It actually doesn't matter whether the money is in your friend's bank account or some corporate bank account, the money is still being lent out, and used to grow capital. It's fundamental to how fractional banking works.
As for people affording to have fun, my experience is that the working class aren't using entertainment to have fun, so much as they're using it to dull the pain and tedium of a fairly shitty existence.
I tend to agree that one should tend to work to improve one's life, but never forget that actively finding content to watch is work. And having access to a large library of digital media is something no amount of money could afford 100 years ago. And lets not forget how cheap super computers are that even homeless people tend to have one in their pocket. So, yeah econonic position matters, I guess.
I couldn't imagine how I could finish college without pirating most of the text books. Piracy gave me an opportunity to grow professionally and morally through infinite media access. Shure if your upper middle class this is an issue to you , since you can afford anything , and now you can moralize and shame people for pirating stuff, which to me, is the same as bragging of your social status. But I am not rich, and to me piracy isn't , like a choice , it is the only option.
It also helps spread content, like a modern version of word of mouth. Assuming every download is a lost sale is a debunked myth. I agree there's a problem, but the solution isn't prosecution but education.
Also, piracy is, most of the time, a master of convenience: Netflix/Steam have reduced pirating way more than any anti-P2P law.
That would still contradict anonymity though. They can't track users by IP address or cookies (if Tor browser is used... it is transient for the session) and having people register means they are likely have to come out of anonymity. If they do manage to register one from anonymous throwaway address, then it essentially make paywall moot...
