piracy

its amazing how small lil comments we make end up in arguements about a much larger idea underneath.
this began with me carelessly commenting about a friends facebook status.. him happy about his dvd collection n me saying i prefer soft copies instead.
and i remembered how my jijoo once asked me whether all the music n sitcoms on my laptop were legal or pirated. i had no idea. problem is, i never even thought about it.
and when forced to, i was almost playin the devils advocate. i was in the wrong and defending it.
okay, in india, you cant lay your hands on a orignal dvd of the latest stuff. movies like saw4 or inception, sitcoms like how i met your mother or coupling (that arent meant to be screened in india in the first place)... and if you do want to spend some money, you end up buying a perfectly illegal pirated copy sold in legal looking covers in perfectly legal cd shops.
and if you eventually do, buying em obviously seems a stupid idea.. when you might as well watch it/listen to it on youtube.. or jus borrow your pals 1TB hard drive.. for FREE.
so its almost like you dont hack th protected website, or break the copyright on a genuine CD.. but you end up where robin hood distributes the loot. now here is the test- whether to accept robin hoods generosity with a smile, or frown upon the theif and keep waiting for the time you can.
i can challenge you that atleast 25% of music on your laptop right now is illegal.. with or without your knowledge.
i can challenge that if you are an adult indian, you have been involved on the guilty and the victim side of corruption.. be it bribing a cop or a railway TC, or getting admitted in hotels n pubs with long waiting lines..
bottom line is law is not judicial, its moral. and people follow laws so far as they are convenient. from smoking in public places to travelling in trains without train tickets, from crossin the railway line than using the bridge to payin up the passport guy to get your documents done.
someone protests against reservations, someone gets a forged document n gets into the coveted course, while someone simply bribes the management and gets in.

SO, for arguments sake, the regular tweens like you n me (tweens being a mananism for twenty plus somethings that live like teens).. are the poor. the artists are the consultants. and the corporates, the studios and record labels are the wealthy rich. who do we side with? the robin hoods or the lousy, corrupted but legally correct government?
and lastly.. parting cheap shot from the devils advocate..
what does an artist crave for really? money/wealth/designer clothing or popularity/love/appreciation and fan following?
P.S. dont take life too seriously, you'll never get out of it alive.