Pirating something is a hell of a lot closer to theft than it is to not-theft.
I have a thing and you steal the thing. You have a thing, I have no thing :( I have a file and you make a copy of it. We both have files :D Copyright might make sense from a policy perspective, if the artificial scarcity is really necessary to get people making things (the success of free software suggests it is not), but there isn't a moral dimension there.
Well, I hang out on r/fantasy with a lot of struggling new authors. There's really no ':D' about it. Instead, it's just another week they can't quit their day job. I torrent music (which is at least somewhat defensible on practical grounds). I used to steal from grocery and convenience stores regularly. But I don't pretend to morals I don't deserve.
And I would like to quite my job and volunteer to help modernize Axiom's interactive environment and visualization functions, because an adequate free replacement for Mathematica is desperately needed and Axiom is the best candidate. Hacking on aging computer algebra systems does not pay the bills; boring old workflow automation does. Capitalism is not my friend, nor yours. Nevertheless, I don't think failing to provide an incentive to keep producing is the same as denying access to a physical thing. I don't claim sharing is a good thing to do, just solidly indifferent.
The consequences seem very similar, which is what matters to me. Many do. Most, even, in the torrenting/filesharing/free internet movement regard themselves as on the vanguard of something or another.I don't claim sharing is a good thing to do, just solidly indifferent.