The strong conviction in watching pirated movies and media

I never got too excited to watch anything on Netflix until The Last Dance, Michael Jordan's 10-part docu happened. It was my Game of Thrones.

After the first 2 episodes, I found myself wanting more. 'Bitin!' A few people sent me links to download the remaining 8 episodes so I can satisfy my want. But I didn't. First, I won't burn late-night hours to binge-watch. Second, there was a strong conviction that it was against my renewed moral standards.

I'm happy and proud to finished all 10 episodes as per Netflix's scheduled release.

Watching anything pirated is stealing. I don't want to steal. The Lord's commandment tells us so. And rightfully, as I was reading Exodus 22 yesterday, I was reminded how God keeps an eye on how we should protect our properties and someone else's, and how something stolen can be restored.

I've been there. I was the guy who would search for crack codes to make softwares work. I was the guy who'll download Youtube videos, convert them to MP3s, and sell them. I was someone who didn't care about watching pirated CDs back then. 

But today, being someone who was saved from a big mess and restored by God's grace, there's always a strong conscious conviction to always abide by what is pleasing to God.

Before doing anything with consciousness, I always ask, "What would Jesus say?" If not me, my wife would remind me what is pleasing and not pleasing to the Lord.

Since the 'awakening' in my life, I stopped watching illegal live streams and started paying for media and subscriptions to legally do so.

From a content creator's perspective

The recently successful online streaming of Ang Huling El Bimbo also faced the same dilemma:

pls dont turn smthn good into smthn bad 🙏 pic.twitter.com/g3D4gTL0UB

— Gab Pangilinan (@gabpangilinan) May 11, 2020

As a blogger, I often find myself a victim of copying and plagiarism. For years, my content gets passed on countless times without proper credit to my blog. Just recently, my friends were tagging me on people's Facebook posts they knew were originally mine but without credits. Sadly, people just resorted to adding #CTTO (credit to the owner) to the posts.

One time, a Facebook friend sent me a chat commending how beautiful my post was. After a few minutes, I saw him posted the article with the source credit omitted and replaced with #CTTO.

Ironically, CTTO does not give credit and due respect to the original - especially if you are aware of who the owner is.

Another one copied the entire message and changed a few words to sound like they own it. You are not only stealing the output. You are also disrespecting the valuable thought process I put in it. It's glorified plagiarism.

My t-shirt designs go through a rigorous creative process - from ideation, research, brainstorming, AB testing, design - that involves huge amounts of time and effort.  As an entrepreneur, it's frustrating that someone will just copy and claim it their own and sell it.

As a visual designer, it's disappointing to see my works being used multiple times without my consent.

As a content creator, it is disrespectful and highly unethical to ignore credits and uphold the rights of the original creators, far more, against moral standards.

You understand by now why I have this much consciousness about this topic.

The conviction

Unfortunately, not too many people are as conscious as I am. I know people who would go out of their way just to download full copies of their favorite Korean series, movies, or games. 

It's easy to ignore these "little" things if we are not directly affected. 

But, you know you're a moral person when you do the right thing even when there's no one looking.  James 4:17 says, "So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin."

If you are doing it unconsciously, I hope this message educates you well. It is not worthy to satisfy our wants at the compromise of our moral and spiritual liability.