Laws are not always ethical, are they?
While most are implemented to keep the peace and prevent people from stealing from one another, there are many which feel wrong. Whether it's who they're hurting or what they're preventing, there's something morally incoherent about their alignment.
Some of us just want to play classic video games, okay?
Reddit user bleachspot wanted to know:
"What is something that is illegal but isn't wrong ethically?"
You have to pay for everything.
That's the truth of the world, right?
There's no other way to get around this.
Oh yeah. The internet.
Paying For Science Is Tough, Apparently
"Downloading scientific papers from Sci-hub."
Tropical_Geek1
"Paying to access scientific knowledge in general"
swan_tanya
"In order to explain science publishing, I always describe it as a system so awful, their version of The Pirate Bay won industry awards."
"I always wonder a little about people who like to pipe up with "just write to the authors; they're usually happy to shrae their work for free!" like we're living 40+ years ago. Maybe I'm denying the authors their share of warm fuzzies, but I'm not gonna bother writing the authors. I can download the paper and be onto the methodology section before I could even finish phrasing my email: "Hi there, long time listener first time caller. Love your work. If you don't mind, could you spare a few minutes to email me a copy? I need it for an argument on reddit. Thanks in advance."
Suspicious-Muscle-96
Ever Try To Buy A Game From More Than A Few Years Ago?
"Downloading Roms of old games. We all know you don't own any of those games, but if companies aren't willing to rerelease them then it should be good to download roms online."
SuccessDisastrous625
"Yep, my general rules of thumb are;"
"If I already owned the game at some point in the past, I'm not going to feel guilty about emulating it however many years later unless it's still readily available."
"My other is if the product is not supported in any modern way, with no easy way to obtain it legitimately then I'm not gonna feel bad either."
"If it's readily available/I've never owned it, I pay."
Homo-Homie
Just One Word Missing And You've Failed The Class
"Downloading college ebooks instead of spending $400 dollars on the latest version which all they did was change the spelling of a few words, and called v87.12458281648391846 of the book, and require it for your college class, even though they only use a single paragraph from chapter 13 which is a quote from a $5 book they offer in most bookstores. And then fail you from the class if you have v87.12458281648391845 instead."
Knightraiderdewd
If laws are supposed to be protecting people, then how do you explain these?
An Annoying Way To Make Money
"Paying for someone else’s parking meter"
PunMatster
"In Keene new Hampshire there was a group called the "robinhooders of keene". They would follow around the meter maid and put quarters in the meters so they couldn't write tickets. Most of the revenue comes from the tickets, not the meters. The city tried to sue but they were unsuccessful. Some unknown benefactor paid the robinhooders to do it. It was part of the libertarian "free state project"
FightForDemocracyNow
You Can't Just Live Anywhere
"Living off the grid without a permit"
RevDLB
"It's hilarious in most places in the USA theres a rule where you cannot camp on YOUR OWN LAND for more than 2 weeks at a time."
"Nobody is going to give a f-ck if you do but still, the rule is there."
"You need a long term camping permit to do so."
"Literally you have to pay to live anywhere in this dumb country haha"
ScrotusMahotus
You Seriously Can't Live Anywhere
Loitering in a park. I've always wondered why this is illegal in some places. The point of a park is to loiter
[usernamedeleted]
"Because homelessness."
thefreakyorange
"It's not illegal to not have a home, but you better believe there are dozens of laws that are directed at, or primarily affect the homeless."
Creeps_On_The_Earth
Sometimes it feels like laws are protecting the wrong people, isn't it?
No Charity
"taking food from dumpsters"
thingstooverthink
"My sister used to work at a Starbucks kiosk in a grocery store. At the end of the day she was supposed to throw away the pastries that were in single use plastic wrappers and she’d write them off as disposed of and such but she’d take them home cause we were struggling financially and was trying to provide a little extra help to her family. It was her first job and was still a teen and naive to the trouble she could get into."
"One day they accused her of stealing and showed the tapes of her taking them home and ended up escorting her out with security and put her on probation and just went the full 9 yards over it. She came home traumatized and sobbing. Corporate is the most inhumane system we’ve ever made yet it’s the one with the most power over us. It’s despicable."
Imagimoor1
You Can't Grow Your Own Wheat?
"Using your own wheat grown on your own fields to feed your family bread when Congress says you can't because the wheat was grown on an acre of your land Congress designated as not for wheat."
"Google Wickard v Filburn for those of you saying this is a made-up scenario. The Supreme court decided that while this farmer was not influential on the economy alone, if many farmers did the same as him in the aggregate, they would cause harm to interstate commerce, which placed his actions under Congressional regulatory authority."
"If you are into US constitutional law at all, this is a very important case to know. Even as conservatives introduced their own spin on commerce later, the foundation and most important bits of Wickard are still there and affect you every single day."
captchasaysimhuman
In Case You Were Wondering...
"You can not own more then 75 salamanders in the state of Illinois, how tf am I gonna start salamander trafficking now. F-ck Illinois"
HalfEasy
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