I went through exactly this process.

Then I discovered (A)GPL and realized that the system makes sense to protect user rights.

And as I started making my own money, I started paying instead of pirating, though I sometimes wonder how much of my money goes to the actual artists and creators and how much goes to zero-sum occupations like marketing and management.

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It comes down to understanding power differentials - we need laws so large numbers of individuals each with little power can defend themselves against a small number of individuals with large amounts of power.

(Well, we can defend ourselves anyway but it would be illegal and many would see it as an overreaction - as long as they steal only a little from each of us, we're each supposed to only be a little angry.)

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> Maybe another 10 years and we'll be in the spot when these things are considered illegal again?

That's my hope too. But it requires many people to understand they're being stolen from and my fear is way too few produce "content"[0] and that the majority will feel like they benefit from being able to imitate us with little effort. There's also this angle that US needs to beat China (even though two nuclear superpowers both lose in an open conflict) and because China has been stealing everything for decades, we (the west) need to start stealing to keep up too.

[0]: https://eev.ee/blog/2025/07/03/the-rise-of-whatever/#:~:text...