Why do we pirate?

Seeing all the hoopla with n3wtoki being down, the threat of this site going down, apparently bato being down, it made me curious, why do we pirate?

Usually it’s a money issue, but sometimes it’s more than that.

For example, in my case, I read a lot more than I actually care to buy.
I only buy the ones I truly want to own.

Secondly, sometimes I really want to buy, but I hate the translation. That is especially true with Chinese series. I hate when they anglicize the characters names, but I also found it h jarring and quite frankly how everyone had a Korean names in Lost in the cloud except for the main characters. So due to that, I wouldn’t buy the series.

Thirdly- quality- Along the same vein as my point above with the name changes, sometimes it feels like the translation is too embellished or they’re trying too hard. I remember when Lack of Love was being published someone pointed out how lacking the translation was. If we’re paying for something, we are assuming we’re getting the best quality (isn’t is one of the digs to fan translations?) I’ve heard the translation for MDSZ is not as good as the one put out by ERS

4th- I don’t even know how to label this one- I just want to vent- so last august (2024) a certain small publisher announced the license of the Codename Anastasia novels. I’ve been wanting to read them in proper English (I haven’t been able to find a good fan translation for the first 4 novels). So they’re not very forthcoming with their communication. They released volume 1 in April 2025 then volume 2 in August 2025, so I figured, 3 months between releases is not too bad, but after volume 2, there have been no more announcements. These novels aren’t particularly long, and I’ve seen decent fan translations done in about a month’s time and these fans have lives outside of translating, the companies doing the translation you have to assume that’s all they’re doing. Anyway, if they’re going to take their sweet time, fine, but at least communicate with your customers. I know for a fact I’m never buying anything from them again. I can’t even be sure they’re going to deliver the rest of the novels (I just want them to drop 3-4 so I can be done with them).

So yeah, reasons?