The Dark Rule Utilitarian Argument For Science Piracy

An applied-ethics essay on whether Sci-Hub is unethical. Against: the rule-utilitarian worry (if everyone pirated, the industry collapses) and the moral force of law. Scott's counter — 'Dark Rule Utilitarianism': if everyone pirated MOVIES you'd just lose Black Panther (capitalism working as intended), but if everyone pirated scientific PAPERS you'd destroy Elsevier's rent-seeking abomination, 'and that would be frickin' fantastic' (per Inadequate Equilibria). For the law-has-moral-force point, the North-Pole thought experiment (a magic artifact making law-violation impossible, weakening toward the equator): he'd live around 'California latitude,' because civil disobedience is 'the acid that dissolves inadequate equilibria' — part of the search process for better institutions, not a secret weapon saved for desegregation. Concludes Sci-Hub can be ethical even universalized.

Quality 74 · Strong. A clean, memorable applied-ethics essay with a fun coinage ('Dark Rule Utilitarianism'), the sharp movies-vs-journals distinction, and the genuinely good 'civil disobedience dissolves inadequate equilibria' framing. Strong.

Claude’s paradigm shift 58 · Moderate. The 'destroy-the-system-because-the-system-is-bad' rule-utilitarian twist plus the civil-disobedience-as-equilibrium-search framing is a fresh take. Notable.

Real-world impact 2 · Minor. A within-discourse ethics essay; no material-world effect. Within-blog influence.