There are roughly 7.5 billion people worldwide. 42% of them download movies and songs illegally. Many of us claim they should be punished, while other people say they shouldn’t. In my opinion, pirates shouldn’t be punished because there might be some really good reasons for them to download something illegally.

The first argument why pirates shouldn’t be punished is because most of the producers aren’t really affected from the illegal activities of pirates. Overall, some producers are really rich and they make movies/songs merely to get a little bit richer and entertain us. Although many people pirate the songs, there are still more than enough people that buy the producers’ final products. So, I am not saying that producers aren’t losing money, but they don’t lose that much since many people still buy them and they are already rich.

Another reason why I think pirates shouldn't be punished is because there is a really high likelihood that such wrongdoers are either kids, or poor people. If they are kids, from age seven to eleven they cannot buy online by themselves, which leads to asking their parents or relatives to buy it for them. Judging from my personal experience, family members are quite reluctant to buy online. The children’s only choice is to find a way to download it illegally. Being kids, they might not know they are doing something illegal. If they do, they still shouldn't be punished because the fact they are kids justifies them. If the person pirating is poor, then they cannot afford to buy a movie or a song. Therefore, their only choice is to download illegally, which means they shouldn’t be punished.

A third reason why pirates shouldn’t get punished is because they might try to buy the movie but the movie might not be available in their country, therefore, they are forced to pirate.

Moreover, some songs and movies might be available on Youtube for free, so, why shouldn’t we be able to download it in our personal devices such as phone or laptop. The last reason why people shouldn’t be punished is because it might be nearly impossible to find the pirates and punish them.

The producers won’t make money, is one of the best counter arguments but this is still proved wrong, as I said before since there are enough people buying the movie and the producers are really rich. Another argument is that you are breaking the law. True, you are breaking the law but the people breaking it have no other choice since they aren’t able to act otherwise. Another decent argument is that you are stealing. In my opinion, you aren’t stealing if you get the product and keeping it for themselves and not sharing it with other people online. If you do this in real life, then it would definitely be stealing. Because it is online, it isn’t really stealing. The fourth and last counter argument, which is the lamest one, is why should they get it for free, while I paid? I count this response as lame one because they pirated since they are poor or kids, while you payed because you can afford it and you aren’t a kid.

In conclusion, pirating is a common practice nowadays and sometimes a very efficient one to promote various songs and movies at a faster rate. Thus, pirates shouldn’t be punished for downloading illegally since they either cannot afford the product or they are under the age of 18, which means they aren’t allowed to have a credit card, therefore, they have to ask adults, while there is a strong likelihood they will refuse. Also the price tags are really high, which leads to piratin in order to obtain the online product.