Moral justification.

[A]

Makes no sense turning the last light off.

If there is light to turn off that is ...

[Quarterquack]

By that logic we are all harassment offenders/serial killers, and as much as we'd like to believe that there is a slippery slope between good and evil, the former probably doesn't exist at all.

[A]

By what logic?And what is this good and evil that you talk about?You talk as if its a fixed and stated entity with clear cut guidelines.The reason there is so much conflict is mainly because ones "good" is another guys "evil".To understand good and evil is to know that there isint such a thing at all.

[Quarterquack]

Read the last line of my first post.

At the same time, there are some empirical evils. Murder, ruining someone else's life etc. Sure you can justify having the anger to motivate you into such actions, but you can't justify what is viewed by most as a morally gray area. My fundamental question in this thread, was by what measure could people justify the actions carried out in the OP. Surely it's not right, and at best, justifications for the deed are questionable even to the people who use the argument of payback. It isn't about payback as much as it is about conformity and mass bullying, and I sincerely doubt anyone can classify such actions as ones in the gray area that are left up to ever person to decide on as to whether they are good or bad in their opinion.

[A]

You really do believe,what you believe to be "evil" and "good" is the defacto for everyone else as well,dont you.Because even if you "pretend to know" that its not,you seem to "judge" based on that.

You seem to have a set answer for the question you asked then why bother looking for answers?
Question:"My fundamental question in this thread, was by what measure could people justify the actions carried out in the OP."
Answer:"Surely it's not right, and at best, justifications for the deed are questionable even to the people who use the argument of payback. It isn't about payback as much as it is about conformity and mass bullying"
and then you justify your answer in the next sentence:"and I sincerely doubt anyone can classify such actions as ones in the gray area that are left up to ever person to decide on as to whether they are good or bad in their opinion. "
Even the so called gray area is fixed according to what you believe what the gray area is to be.

So what are you actually trying to do in this thread?

[ca_aok]

I disagree with the actions taken by the pirates (and 4channers) but I also strongly disagree with the actions of the firm. These people are despicable bastards extorting money from the uninformed. I feel absolutely no pity for them and firmly believe they get what's coming to them, but at the same time I'm certainly not going to go DoS their site myself, or repaste their emails, or send them harassing phone calls, etc.

The big issue here is the core of filesharers are a group of people too young to really distinguish between right and wrong or think about the consequences of their actions. Of course there's a group of angry "cyber-terrorists" (for lack of a better word) who see their hardline tactics and promotion of digital anarchy as the solution to the anti-p2p movement, but I think they're quite the minority.

[megabyteme]

@RH- I never said to kill the individual in my example, just run them out of "the neighborhood". Also send them a "message" that we will not tolerate their existence in our neighborhood.

I suggest you delete all "ill-gotten files" and bathe yourself in the river Styx. It is the only way to cleanse you dirty, dirty soul.

-------------

And who says any of us are "evil". As far as I am concerned, this "crime" is the equivalent to J-walking. Should we allow ourselves to be mugged, or raped without putting up a fight because we have "done wrong" and therefore "deserve whatever happens to us as a result".

The victim was "asking for it".

[sandman_1]

The courts are suppose to rain down "justice". They are not to be bastardized by greedy lawyers who's only interest is to profit. They could care less about if justice is dealt out, as long as they line their pockets with cash. So what 4chan did, I have no qualms about.

Why do I pirate? Because I see the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. This is the case in the U.S., where the middle-class is eroding and the upper-class is becoming richer and richer. http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker...CD,WMT,XRT,DIA The rich get bail-outs and claim they are too big to fail or complain that they don't make billions more each year despite making billions in profit. Do the average people get bail-outs? Hell no. So I am all for "sticking it to the man" because "the man" is sure as hell sticking it to us. By the way, guess how many millionaires are in Congress? 237 as of 2009. Feel represented?

[megabyteme]

Also, the word "copyright" has been bastardized as much as the word "pirate". In (somewhat) line with sandman's post, both changes in the word serve big business.