So you're saying that if a business prices their product too high, you should steal it instead and that this is ok because they didn't follow lean business principles?
I think there is a large class of people who have no moral objections to piracy. The only reason why they pay for something like netflix or itunes is because of convenience. That is, they are paying for the convenience, not the content. Therefore if the price goes up, and exceeds whatever value they are pricing that convenience, they naturally revert to other methods of getting the content (i.e. piracy).
So stealing is not ok because they didn't follow lean business principles--stealing was okay in the first place. It was just a happy coincidence that using netflix wasn't stealing.
I like how the OP of this comment thread is going to continue with half the service, and pirate the rest. Nice doubled standard on the morality of piracy. The thing is, pirating is more convenient than DVDs. Keeping streaming (which is more convenient that torrents) and then torrenting what isn't available on streaming seems to be the most convenient move.
This was in no way motivated by a moral consideration on my part. I do not see it in the moral context at all. This was an issue only because of convenience and ease of use for my significant other.
Okay, so here's a simple example. You can buy a sack of rice anywhere for $2. If you sell the same kind of rice for $200, do you think you'll sell any sacks? You'd go out of business, and deservedly so, right?
The interesting thing in Netflix's case is that the product is (content + convenience), but since the content can be obtained (illegally) for free, the customer sees only the value of the convenience. If you raise the price above what the customer is willing to pay, why would you expect the customer to pay it?
Now sure, piracy is an illegal act, but so is fraud. Yet insurance and credit card companies manage to sustain a working business model.
