If buying things at the store was as painful as watching stuff on streaming services, and shoplifting was as low risk as torrenting, and my stealing an item didn't make that item disappear from the store, I'd probably do it there too.

I can name at least one country in the European Union in which torrenting copyright content for personal use is legal, people still do very much use spotify and netflix.

Gabe Newell got it right from the very start, piracy is a service problem.

Only consequences, physically speaking the two are not the same at all.

Copying of anything digital is not actual theft, nor will it ever be.

It's not comparable, because copying a bread with a bread copying machine should be completely fine.

Depends on where you live.

Copyright infringement is generally a civil offence in Australia.

Whereas theft of physical goods is generally not.

Penalties for copyright infringement differ between countries as well.

Shops aren't there yet, but ISPs are. Where can I pirate the internets?