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I think it's ownership which makes piracy unethical. A free "experience" is not, otherwise libraries would be unethical, and as far as I know they are not. Lending a CD to friend to listen to doesn't quite pass the threshold for unethical behavior.
You may borrow a book and have it's experience, but if you want to be able to experience the book whenever you want, you have to cough up some money for ownership.
(Stuff on youtube is almost on the line, but is probably ultimately unethical because if certain simple steps are taken, you can watch whatever you want whenever, which is more or less ownership.)
So: I could check out a DVD at my library. But sometimes I like watching movies on my phone. I need the movie as a file. So I pirate the movie. After I watch it, I delete it. It was just some dumb comedy I'll never watch again.
Is this action unethical?
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