Piracy is sin

Wikipedia is down.  Google has gone black.  Many other sites are protesting in their own way.  And what are they protesting?  From Google:

“Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business.”

I want to be clear.  There are some legitimate concerns about how these laws would be enforced and how the power granted to government would affect the internet as we know it.  And those things must be considered carefully.

But the basic reason Congress is considering these laws is because those who create things like movies, music, and software have grown tired of seeing the content they are seeking to sell offered for free in all sort of places by people without any part in the creation of that content.

I want to take this occasion to say this clearly.  Piracy is sin.  Each time you download a song you did not pay for from some site, it is not different from walking into you local retail store and stuffing a CD (If you are under 16, ask your parents what  a CD is) into you pocket.  Each time you use a piece of choral music without obtaining the right to preform it, it is as if you walked out of the local Christian book store with the materials stuffed in a backpack you brought in to the store.  Each time you download that TV show or movie to watch on your iPod without paying, it is as if you jumped the rope at the local theatre.  And yes, every time you load up that software someone else offered to you for free since they had the disc or the files, it is the same as walking out of the Best Buy with the software stuffed in your shirt.  Piracy is sin.  The fact that you do it at your house and you are almost certain never to get caught does not change for a second the fact that you have stomped all over these words, “You shall not steal.” 

Image used with permission of Paul Söderholm http://www.gnurf.net/

Satan loves to convince us that if no one is around to convict us of our sin, it is not really wrong.  But today, the Spirit through these words comes to rob us of his lies.  The Spirit himself comes to convict us of sin.

So today, you are more than welcome to consider the implications of the legislation before the congress.  But you are not welcomes to act any longer as if stealing is okay. 

No, it is not okay because no one will catch you.  It is not okay because the creators of content are in some cases filthy rich.  It is not okay because you would not have bought the content otherwise.  Piracy is sin.

So repent today of it.  Delete the music and the movies.  Buy that software you have been using without paying.  Delete the peer to peer sharing network off your computer.

And know this:  The one who paid the whole price for your salvation says to you, “Your sins are forgiven.  Salvation is yours.  I give it to you free as your eternal possession.”