I was arrested for shoplifting this week. No f**king joke. I had spent the lunchtime of my school day in the gym as my P.E teacher is helping me to get fit, and I forgot to bring a pack lunch, so I was on my way home.

I walked into the store, tired and sluggish after spending the last period slugging through a media evaluation of my film trailer. I grabbed a pasta pot which I planned to buy, and was craving a energy rush. I walked to the tills, but not before stopping off in the chocolate aisle, and clumsily sneaking a chocolate into my pocket (I say clumisly because I had done it before, and passed unnoticed), paid for my goods, and headed for the door.

BAM. A hand grabbed me and told me to go with him, but not before emptying my pockets. knowing I was busted, I handed over the chocolate bar and spent the next half hour holding back tears of worry because if I get any kind of official record, I won't be able to travel to America, Canada, Austrailia etc.

The police came for me and took me home, and let me off with a verbal warning. Needless to say, my mother was crushed, my sister was pissing herself laughing and my dad doesn't know. My mother still won't trust me and I feel dead inside whenever she gives me these looks of disappointment. I've been banned from the store for life and my school has yet to deal with me yet (hopefully they didn't get notified).

The worst thing? I'm not sad that I did it, I'm sad that I was caught.

The policeman asked me "If I go to your house and go in your fridge, will I find it bare?". I replied no. He said "Right then, you were stealing out of greed then weren't you?"

This is piracy.



Try as you might to justify it, the fact is you want something but are not willing to, for some reason or another, to pay for it. Piracy is not a crime of desperation. EVER. You are never forced into a position where you have no choice but to pirate said item.

I'm not sitting here on my white horse, judging all pirates and acting as judge, jury and executioner. Most of my entire music library is pirated and I have pirated a few games (Terraria, Jurassic Park : Operation Genesis) so I'm not clean either. But my point is not to rage and call the death of pirates, that would make me a hypocrite. I just think they need to stop acting all high and mighty, and just except the fact that is stealing, nothing more.

You don't want to live without it, but you either do not have enough, or do not want to spend money on said item. But rather than live without it, you pirate it. Say what you want "The RIAA just steal money, I don't want to play with Ubi's shitty DRM, EA are money grabbing whores and I don't want to support them."

Theft is different to piracy. We must not forget that though. Theft is stealing the original, while piracy is making a copy of the original and sharing it? So does that mean the people who are getting the pirated version are in the wrong? They're not paying for the product, are they?

The simple fact is you are taking something and not paying for it. Just like I did. I made the stupid mistake of trying to have my cake and eat it too, and that has landed me in serious shit, I MEAN SERIOUS SHIT.



Pirates don't see the damage they cause because the "ripple effect" is practically invisible, because their actions are on a different plain, the virtual plain, while the damage is caused in the real world.

I'm not saying pirates are wrong, I'm just saying they should stop trying to justify it, it's theft, simple as. If a pirate is arrested, they're not sorry they pirated, they're sorry they were caught.

P.S Don't be alarmed, I'm not a criminal or anything, it was just a moment of weakness. As a sign of my apology to the world, I leave you with a pretty awesome picture my friend found. But hey, I'm sure my strong opinions on this subject are bound to attract a lot of shit from people who disagree with me.