Nah the precepts are pretty straightforward and do not include intention. However intention is the molding factor that will make you, sooner or later, experience the fruits of that intention (vipaka) to a degree that is basically proportional to your original intention, and your current state of mind (then we get into all the kammic complexities so let's not)Maarten wrote:Doesn't it depend on the intention? Technically it's not stealing, but it can be in spirit. If you download in order to save money then I think it should be considered stealing, since the creator is losing money here. But what if you download a product that you would never buy if downloading was not possible? So you would only get it if it was free. In this case the owner does not lose anything does he? he would have never had your money anyway. So in this last case no one is losing anything so it's not really stealing right?
With Metta,
Maarten
To add my view to the thicket: to me this is a straightforward "yes, it does violate the 2nd precept". You are taking something that is not given (I don't really see the debate here tbh). Now, do I think that this has strong kammic consequences? Absolutely not. This sounds pretty minor to me. BUT, you're still breaking the precept.
So it depends how pure you want your Sila to be. When the mind gets to certain degrees of deep stillness, it doesn't need much to move... Or I should say, the disturbance of minor things like that become more apparent (while before you would think this would never have any consequences whatsoever)
It's quite funny because both this topic and the porn ones are the most viewed on this sub-forum; basically it comes down to "I really like doing that, and I don't intend to change - can I find a way so that it accords with the Buddhist side of my personality?". We just need a topic about the glass of wine at dinner and I think we have a winning trio