I was listening to the radio the other day, and this great song came on. I made my phone listen to it and tell me what it was. My Way by Frank Sinatra, my phone said, with an option to buy the track. And in that moment, my mind immediately went to ways of obtaining the song without having to spend any cash.
And then I was like, Dude. You’re an adult. You have an income. You can totally afford 99 cents.
But when I was a minor? I wouldn’t have given torrenting a second thought. A song, an album, a movie, an article, I wouldn’t have given any of it a second thought. And it wasn’t just online: I used to give my friend five bucks and a list of songs, and he’d burn a CD for me over the weekend.
Here’s the thing: I own a business where we create intellectual property. The irony is incredible. My portfolio is hosted online; my links have to be shared, and I have to trust people not to steal my work.
Being able to look back at stealing stuff as something I’ve left behind gives me this luxury of saying, This is the new me. The new me that gets to frown upon piracy and theft. I get to say, It’s not worth it. It’s just 99 cents.