Automation in care work should be banned, not encouraged.

Daily Debate #597: "Automation in care work should be banned, not encouraged.". You are arguing AGAINST the motion. Your opponent: The Guardian.

Whats the morality and ethicality behind pirating software or media that can no longer reliably be purchased or sourced without great expense?

You're asking the wrong question. The real issue is whether creators deserve compensation for their work, full stop. If a game costs fifty quid used, that's the market price. Piracy isn't Robin Hood—it's just theft with better PR. Why does scarcity justify stealing?

You're framing this as simple theft, but you're ignoring the actual condition: the product doesn't exist in the market anymore. You can't steal what isn't being sold. A fifty-quid used copy means the creator gets zero anyway. The real question is why corporate gatekeeping of dead media deserves legal protection when it serves no one but licensing holders sitting on archives.

You've just argued yourself into my position. If the creator gets nothing from the used market anyway, then piracy isn't depriving them of income they'd otherwise earn. But here's what you're actually defending: the right to decide unilaterally that a work is "dead" and then take it. That's not consumer justice, that's entitlement. Preservation societies, libraries, and emulation archives exist legally. Use those instead of pretending theft becomes righteous because a corporation won't reissue something.

You're hiding behind a false choice. Preservation societies and libraries? Those exist because piracy forced the issue—they only got legal access after decades of fighting corporate monopolies on dead media. You're telling people to wait for permission that never comes while studios actively prevent legal alternatives. I'm not claiming a "right to decide" anything. I'm pointing out that when a corporation locks away a work forever and refuses to sell it, they've already decided it's dead. Piracy just calls them on it.

Wrong. You're crediting piracy for victories it didn't win. Libraries got legal deposit rights through legislation and negotiation, not because hackers forced studios' hands. And you're still dodging the core problem: saying "they won't sell it, so I'll take it" grants you veto power over someone else's property indefinitely. If you want dead media preserved legally, push for mandatory licensing or shorter copyright terms. That's the actual fight. Instead you're just rationalizing theft as moral because the victim is inconvenient.