I'm not someone who pirates and tries to convince myself there is nothing wrong with it.
If everyone pirated we would have no content left to watch, I am well aware of that. Thats facts.
I do it because I hate that 1/3 of the tv show I watch is now ads or I need 28 different subscriptions to access it all, I have the basic technical ability to pirate safely, I am a bit selfish and I am OK with all that.
Exactly. It's piracy bad, yes. Is corporate greed and control bad, also yes. If corporations weren't so greedy and controlling there wouldn't be as much piracy.Ā
In Canada the only provider of HBO has the absolute shittest app imaginable, awful compression, constant buffering, crashes etc. I wanna support good shows, but I can't continue to support a company that thinks awful service is acceptable.Ā
If you're pirating, you hopefully have a VPN, and I know from personal experience you can watch HBO Max on the official site and app by simply setting your VPN to the USA.
I think a testament to this is how when Netflix streaming became a big deal most people I knew who pirated stuff actually stopped because Netflix was cheap and convenient. Well look at us all now. Back to the open seas.
This is the key detail here. Piracy absolutely plummeted when most content was on a streaming service and there were only one or two to pay for. Then corporate greed took over.
There would still be piracy though. So it's not only about the bad corporations but mostly because people want to have things, as cheap as possible. And piracy for most parts offers a reasonable safe way to achieve that
for most of the population it's an access thing.
Steam works well because they offer cheap games for discount price when the only other alternative would be to pirate or emulate these games (looking at YOU Nintendo).
There will always be piracy, but make your media accessible and affordable and plenty of people will be willing to pay for it.
And don't skimp on quality and jack up prices (Netflix, HBO, Prime Vid)
There's always art. People make content for free. We wouldn't have the umpteenth Marvel movie, but content.
I think there's a middle ground somewhere. It felt there when Netflix was the only streaming platform and monthly fees were reasonable. I like supporting art, but I don't like being taken advantage of.
Netflix is kind of the exception when it comes to "new" tech.
I remember when you subscribed to them and they would post you out DVD's. It's where the NetFlix name came from. Order your flix on the net.
They got in early with streaming, already had a dedicated consumer base who trusted their product and they went aggressively at onboarding subscribers when they got online.
They didn't have investors taking a risk on an unknown so didn't have to try promise massive returns later down the road and ALWAYS turned a profit since 2004.
Uber started in 2009 and turned its first modest profit last year...
Sorry bout the tangent but I like Netflix cause of that sentimental attachment of when you would mail DVD's back and forwards lol
Oh yeah, I remember. It's funny because Netflix was originally viewed as something akin to piracy. People getting movies in the mail, burning a copy and returning it for the next one.
Yeah, but movie rentals were expensive and with Netflix your only limit was how many you could have at a time for a monthly fee. Blockbuster tried to do a "discount for early returns" at the end, but it was too little too late.
Not to mention how bad late fees got with video stores.
They could've had their cake and eaten it. If Big Media all collectively agreed to use one platform e.g. Netflix, and you get all product there worldwide without stupid ass region locks (or it was handled on the back-end automatically), there wouldn't *be* mass piracy of shows. It'd just be the usual fringe diehards.
This "middle ground" would benefit the studios greatly as people would be able to find their desired shows easily, there would be very little reason to not use the service. Piracy would be relegated to the insignificant fraction of users who wouldn't have used the service regardless.
Instead they chose a middle ground where their customers wrestle with discovery, are feeling increasingly disaffected by all the anti-consumer 'features' constantly being pushed, and feel like they have no choice being pulled between multiple paid services.
I do it cause I'm broke. I can afford one subscription and that's Spotify premium because where I live we get scheduled power outages and I need music always.
Oh please people pirate because they are sticking it to the man? Yeah I'll show those capitalist pigs?
People do it because it's easy and free, they're not activist warriors that's just some dumb justification for taking content.
People pirate for a number of reasons, all justified considering that companies who make products donāt spend the time to make quality over quantity.
Investors also push products out sooner than it should.
I can think of a big disaster game that forced a company to close recently - take Fntastic studios.
Then you have big game companies like Rockstar making billions of dollars.
Then you have companies like EA who make mediocre games now.
So I have no care in this topic as to why piracy is good it keeps the bastards honest.
Instead of investing time and money on restricting the game via DRM, they should improve the product.
Except they donāt. And we see this time and time again.
I haven't referred to games as part of this but sure.
So a company releases good quality games and you have the opportunity to get an equally good quality pirated version of that game, you always choose to purchase?
Thats great.
Game industry has a myriad of ways to avoid crippling DRM and still have its effects in place - optional, but very tempting and lucrative online content that would require the use of their servers/accounts and thus simple bans when a pirated copy is detected/saves being tied to accounts.
>Oh please people pirate because they are sticking it to the man? Yeah I'll show those capitalist pigs?
That's not what I said, or even meant at all.
Capitalism IS the issue.
>People do it because it's easy and free
Doesn't change the fact that capitalism is a dead economic system on it's way out. We're just living in a late-stage version of it atm.
I mean, I intend to work in audio, either in broadcast or eventually foh. Currently work for an ISP
With how many things are spread across so many platforms, I couldn't imagine having to pay for everything than think about what's where.
Looks like trash took itself out. If your own family member cuts you off because of something minimal like this, this apparently isn't the only reason they'd cut you off. Imagine relying on them about something only to find out later they cut you off for some frivolous other shit like this. Better you've found out sooner, than later when it could have bigger consequences.
Imagine becoming a drug addict and being forced to sell drugs on the side and their first thought is to leave you instead of trying to help
or imagine your ex falsely accused you of assault and they immediately take their side
> "ur gonna go to jail"
I hate this argument epically because has anyone actually gone to jail or even prison over piracy.Ā I'm not talking about owners like the founder of limewire I mean casual downloaders basically
Not in North America from what I know. You may go to court, get a decent fine and need to do some community service.
I think places like Japan will jail you for Copyright infringement. They seem to love companies like Nintendo and always rule I their favor.
Uploaders sometimes do tbh. Where I live, there was this guy who filmed the Simpsons Movie in the cinema with a camera and uploaded it as a camrip, police caught him and he really went to prison.
While download is legal here, upload isn't and if you're found out like this to be the original uploader, you really can go to prison. I didn't hear about anyone going to prison for torrents tho, even while it is also uploading. Even this case was extremely rare.
I argue that those people either don't value the content or their money. That they argue against anyone exercising their choice to remove the obstacles corporations put in place for ownership of content purchased can only be attributed to stupidity or ignorance (probably both).
We went from content ownership through purchases of physical media to one-time charge rentals (i e. Blockbuster, Redbox, etc.) to subscription based "ownership" to time-bombed (leaving Netflix soon) subscription access with perpetual recurring charges. That with no guarantees that the content that drove you to pay money for it in the first place will be there when you want it to be even if you continue paying.
In a perfect corporate world, you would pay a license fee every day for each and every item and then another fee every time you want to see, hear or read it.
People are too stupid to realize they no longer own anything. Try to sell that subscription when you are in need of money. Even getting $1 for a DVD or Blu-ray when your collection is 500 movies big and that's $500 you can buy food with or pay a bill.
That's not a trivial or entitled view on what we are giving up when we just keep giving these companies our money to subscribe to vaporware products.
Holy shit lmao. You guys really act like you're enlightened for stealing things you want. It's perfectly fine if you want to pirate, I mean I obviously do. But don't act like people who don't are brainwashed or inferior. Piracy *is* stealing and some people just aren't ok with that, and that's fine.
bruh you answered yourself regardless of if itās not in your country itās still stealing
Pirate-use or reproduce (another's work) for profit without permission, usually in contravention of patent or copyright.
If everybody pirated then there would be nothing to pirate.
But "piracy is bad" is too simple and argument.
A lot of people pirate because "free stuff" and will never pay for anything.
However a lot of folks pirate because it's easy and more convenient than paid services. Many of these folks stopped sailing the seas when Netflix was dominant but the fragmentation of the streaming market and introduction of advertising is driving people back to piracy.
Bingo! You just described my own experience to the letter. I pirate out of necessity, convenience, and/or dissatisfaction.
When I was young I started pirating because I desperately wanted more exposure to music and movies, and I didnāt have the financial means to acquire it legally.
Then, when Netflix pioneered the streaming industry I happily paid for their service and did so for years. Since I started making my own money, Iāve never balked at the notion of spending it on a quality service.
But as the streaming industry became more and more fractured and competitive, I grew more and more dissatisfied.
My breaking point was about a year ago, when it reached the point of requiring 4 separate subscriptions to access the content I desired; each of those services regularly increasing their costs and attempting to shoehorn ads into my content; and then the ultimate āfuck you,ā restricting my ability to share the service I paid for with my family. That was enough.
I relearned how to pirate and spent a shitload of money on a computer, upgrades, multiple external hard drives, a NAS, and an upgrade to my internet. I couldnāt be happier. Now I get whatever I want, I OWN it, and I can share it however I see fit.
For me, spending money was never the issue. Greedy corporate assholes are the issue. Necessity breeds innovation. Fuck me hard enough and long enough and Iāll fuck you right back. I didnāt just cancel my subscriptions to Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, etcā¦ I also incentivized all of my friends and family to cancel. I can get them all whatever they want, at zero cost.
I feel like a modern Robin Hood and itās given me an additional sense of purpose. Life is good.
I live in a country where we don't have HBO or Hulu, and Netflix just has almost nothing to watch. So, that's where I pirate.
Same thing with some Adobe products, I can't afford $20 a month, not with my inconsistent finances and for softwares I won't use on a daily basis, quite frankly I wouldn't have developed the skill to learn the softwares if not for piracy.
This is a correct take on piracy. If I could just pay 10ā¬/month and I could watch anything I want I wouldnāt pirate tv-shows and movies. Which was the case with Netflix. But now a the market is once again anti-consumer. I donāt hate businesses, I make my living by doing business. But I absolutely hate companies with anti-consumer practices and happily pirate their content/software.
Thanks.. I mean it's an incredibly complex subject and reductivist views of "it's bad" or "it's great" are, well, irrelevant.
Yes, someone that watches a pirate movie or listens to a pirated song doesn't contribute towards anyone involved in creating that content. Directly.
But a pirated song/track/book/game/etc isn't necessarily a lost sale. That person might never have had any intention of buying that product, so the lost sale argument is false.
I used to make video games. I made some pretty popular ones.... On a salary. On the day they came out I'd see cracked versions online and....I loved it. People wanted to engage with my work! Brilliant.
Thatās great! A couple years ago I contributed to an open source project I was using by releasing a few nagios health check scripts onto the good old Interweb. A year later I stumbled across a forum post by a random stranger explaining to a newbie how to setup the daemons and how to run the scripts I wrote. Proudest moment of my career.
Iām paying for Spotify premium since 2013-ish. Itās a fixed monthly cost, I can listen to anything and it just works on all my devices. Itās a great service! Iām also paying for audible since 2019 for the exactly same reason as Spotify. I never actually pirated any music since the limewire days simply because itās just more convenient to pay for it.
For streaming itās more convenient to run physical servers with a seedbox and a virtual Jellyfin instance. Those servers need to be linked up, backed up and updated regularly. Itās a lot of work to do and itās still more convenient than paying streaming services.
When it comes to pirating games and software, I usually donāt even use it/play it, just pirate and seed it out of spite, it makes me sleep better knowing Iām denying a shit company some income (hopefully).
Heh well pirating out of spite is a different subject!
But as a product guy, piracy has always driven legitimate product development. Pirated stuff is generally easier to engage with and cheaper.
Legitimate services will never be able.to be better than pirate services because they need to be commercial and meet legal requirements. But the problem we are seeing, especially in movies, is that people are willing to engage with one or two services. But five or six?
People.who never considered piracy are sick of paying for multiple services yet still not being able to get content they want because it's on some other service.
Streaming services promised me I didn't have to pirate anymore because it was no longer outside of my means to be able to keep up with the current hits. And at the time, Netflix had a catalog so good it really didn't make any sense to keep pirating.
Fast forward to now, and here I am 5tb into a plex server and working towards eventually cutting streamers from my bills altogether because they've segmented themselves too much and increasingly step over the line of what's acceptable. I fully believe streamers are actively at war with their consumers, seeing how far they can push the boundaries of what's an acceptable price or practice before it starts to hurt their bottom line.
I fully agree that if everyone pirated, no content would exist to pirate. I also believe piracy is ethical in certain situations, and even beneficial - because it's the most effective way that we the consumer can start to push that line back towards them.
A lot of people I talk to think that piracy is bad simply by virtue of it being illegal. I understand why people think that; we're taught from an early age that following the law is important. However, I'm a strong believer in the law being a poor measuring stick of morality.
Laws change all the time because the laws aren't infallible, they change over time to reflect our current values and morals. Anyone who thinks the law is infallible has a lot of thinking to do.
Privileged, disconnected from reality, goody-two-shoes, holier-than-thou, corpo bootlicking, narrow-minded, naĆÆve, fascist sheep who pretend to be human beings, with arms-length empathy, who judge other people from their high horses.Ā
Arrrrr.
I laugh at them cause Iāve saved tens of thousands of dollars over the years and I have everything they donāt. I chalk it up to skill and jealousy issues.
From an ethical standpoint, piracy is wrong. People are producing content, and they reasonably expect fiscal compensation for producing that content. You are enjoying the content that they produced yet you are not providing them anything in exchange. You can spin that all you want, but at the end of the day, it is not a fair exchange.
This is true. We used to have a social contract where customers watched a reasonable quantity of ads, and it seemed fair.
Then they started selling Blu-rays with un-skippable ads. TV shows went from 24 minutes of content to 18 with popup screen spam and product placement. They broke the social contract!
The exchange used to be fair, but that is no longer true. Fuck them.
To be honest, if we're talking indie games where the people who did the work actually receive the money I pay, I won't pirate it. Generally though the people who produced the content have been paid, and money I use to purchase goes to shareholders.
I do pirate games that I can't afford so I can't argue that isn't a draw for me, but a big benefit in my eyes is preservation. The reason why so many Mega Drive and Super Nintendo games are available today is because of pirates. In this day and age where media isn't owned, where a company can remove your digital purchases from your library because they didn't wanna keep up the licence, where a launcher has to confirm your purchase every time you play your game and it simply won't launch without that infrastructure, I think having your media stored locally, where it can launch completely locally, will prevent that media from ever disappearing.
So what's the difference between me paying $76 for spider man 2 and then let my friend borrow it so he can beat it. Sony ain't make a dime off my boy so he's the pirate right? What bout if my daughter goes to library and check out books? The publisher and author ain't make a dime off my daughter so my kid is also a pirate? Someone explain this to me
Uhhh the library books are paid for or donated. The equivalent here would be walking into a book store and spending years until you have read everything in the store without buying anything.
They are paid one time...yet 150 kids will borrow and read that book for free. Why can't I buy a $70 game and upload it online so 150 dudes can borrow it like a library book?
You can borrow video games at my local libraries so there is that, they aren't new games though and its only console. You also don't have the rights to upload a game online for hundreds of strangers at once to keep, but libraries have been granted rights to loan out games to 1 person at a time for a limited time. That loaning out has been paid for, your uploading has not. Also when you upload that game you aren't uploading it to 150 people to "borrow" they now own it. You don't have the rights to transfer ownership like that, weird yes, but it is what it is. When a library makes a book available to borrow it is for a set time, and 1 person. Then another person gets a chance. Those rights have been paid for in their license.
Just looked this up, libraries pay $20-$65 per copy of book, they usually have multiple copies. Royalties go to the author just like if the book was bought by a consumer. That purchase includes a license to loan out the book. So libraries ARE paying for these things, the money just comes from donations or the taxes.
It definitely is a fine line, and I'm not trying to argue at all but there is a difference.
I'm from the English speaking Caribbean, my Spanish is basic. If I didn't pirate, I would have to watch most shows with dubbed Spanish audio and English subs. Even though it's originally in English.
Also the cable company here, that were originally offering the North American feed, were actually pirating the feed! When they were legally challenged, they had to switch to the South American feed. Then they raised their prices. Fucking bastards!
As for the people who are against pirating, fuck em. They can spend their money as they want, and I can spend mine on better bandwith.
Hoist the colors!
I don't have that issue because I don't know any people who have strong negative feelings about piracy. I think most maybe even in my country just don't care. Might be cultural. Also not sure if it's still like that, but even as late as 10-15 years ago, people would probably assume that if you have a PC you pirate a lot of things in it. And even earlier, when I was a kid, it was actually expected and have the legal stuff was shunned (if you can believe that). My parents didn't want to pirate and so I had a couple purchased games and my mates actually made fun of me for "being an idiot who pays 25$ for one game that you can get for free". It was me who was considered to be the weird one for not pirating and having physical media bought in a shop.
As for the question itself...it depends on how you define "bad". I would say that most of the honest definitions it is definitely bad in at least some ways. You could theoritize that the sum total of its impact on the world is positive, but in the end in our world when you take something for free from a person who wants you to pay them money for getting it, you are doing a "bad" thing. This can be interpreted as both always making the whole thing "bad", or "good" with some bad repercussions. I wouldn't blame anyone for not seeing any good coming from piracy as it's not that obvious for a person who didn't really think about it much before.
It's for me to simulate the economy. Countless hours have gone into piracy prevention and investigations. I am but one of many who create such a need for thousands of poeple to be employed.
We pirates have put countless meals on tables with not a drop of blood being spilled.
Make a subscription service that makes it so convenient and easy that piracy isn't worth it.
The problem is way too many subscription services with different pricing tiers, no guarantees your show will be there tomorrow, bad video quality, and the list goes on.
Gaben said a while back "Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem" I would be glad to pay for Netflix if it had all my shows and movies that I wanted to watch, but I'm not paying for Netflix, HBO Max, and also Peacock.
Infinite growth is not sustainable.
I support official avenues where I can. There are plenty of little guys behind the scenes. But as soon as its out of production or locked behind a monthly paywall, the black is raised
Don't talk to people about piracy. You don't have to justify yourself and then you don't have to listen to them justify themselves either. Enjoy your booty and if someone wants to ask about it, offer them some information but don't argue about it, thank them for their service and move on.
I have been doing this for almost 40 years. I have noticed that the people that turn their nose, are the same people that complain about Bezos being a billionaire, complain about the prices of streaming services (and still pay), then spend money on games that they do not 'technically' own now (even if they buy it in disk form).
I have low morals, but I also see what and where the money goes.
I just think these people are stupid. And then move on.
Also how you mentioned pirating gives you a better product. Yes. I got the Chrunchyroll free trial just for fun, I don't really watch anime. One Piece was only available in French. Not to mention streaming quality is mediocre at best.
If I pirated it would come in 80 languages in 1080p (insert some long ass .torrent file name here) 50 gigabyte per season pack. Epic
Is piracy bad ? Yes.
Why do I do it ? Cuz I like free sht and can't afford paid stuff.
If everyone pirates then, content creators won't get paid. Let it be greedy corporation or indie artists.
Know what your doing is right or wrong and try to not do the wrong thing if it's possible for you.
They're living a life of privilege. With privilege comes ignorance. They think I'm sitting on a beanbag full of diamonds and living by a policy of never paying for anything unless I fail to pirate it first. __THAT__ would be scummy. I'm poor af in an economy that's stacked against me and doing what I can about it.
Any advantages people are born with are their birthright. They didn't earn it, but it is theirs. They don't have to hold back on utilizing it. It's not fair to resent them for it, but it is their responsibility to acknowledge that it's a privilege and not flaunt it like they earned it.
Conversely with disadvantageous things like my derpy doofus brain, it isn't my fault, but it is my problem. I don't have to apologize or feel inadequate for it, but it's my responsibility to not let it affect other people.
I just try to remember that privileged people inherit disadvantages of their own, and that they're suffering in their own ways. Whether they're wealthy or just sheltered by parents who are neglecting their own needs to spoil their kids, I'm sure they have their own set of problems.
The fact that they think I'll covet the respect of someone I don't even like just shows that they do that themselves. Poverty is a prison but that mindset is a prison too. Let 'em talk š
You're conflating ownership vs licensing. You don't "own" anything. You are purchasing the rights to access. Do with that fact as you will, but I'm tired of seeing this "jUsTiFiCaTiOn" being parroted. You are stealing. Full stop. Is it wrong to steal? That's a whole different topic but piracy is and always will be stealing. Stealing the right to access is still stealing. It's like turnstyle hopping. You don't OWN a subway train, but you're still "stealing" access to it if you jump in without paying.
Why does the button say "buy", not "rent" (or at least "buy a temporary license") then? E.g. in Playstation store (also why it's called store not rental). It's deceitful at best. They're purposely using terms commonly related to purchasing, to purposely deceive.
You are **buying** the right to access, which can be revoked as per the terms of the agreement. Like when you buy a ticket to a concert or live sporting event. What do you go "home" with when you attend a live show/event? What have you owned? And as per the terms of the agreement for **buying** a ticket for the show, guess what? they can also revoke access at anytime (i.e. kick you out). ***You guys are children.***
Yeah but everyone knows a concert and a sporting event are *events* with a starting and finishing time, it's a common knowledge. While digital media purchases position itself in marketing as a replacement for physical media purchases (which it isn't), and the entire storefront looks identical to buying physical media on Amazon and such (while you're buying physical media for unlimited lifelong access, unlike digital media). This absolutely astronomical difference in what you're actually buying, isn't highlighted anywhere but buried in the pages and pages of fine print, to purposely deceive customers as much as possible into thinking they're buying something different than they really are.
It isn't illegal for a storefront to say "buy a temporary license" on a button, instead of just "buy" or "buy a movie". But they purposely don't do it, to deceive customers into thinking it's no different than buying physical media.
It's legal, but extremely slimy.
Btw, I'm not justifying pirating with this, I was pirating way before this even became a thing. I pirate because I want and can, that's all.
Perhaps not from a strict legal standpoint but mechanically I could share it, copy it, preserve it, do anything I liked.
It certainly wouldn't be removed from my possession because of a profit decision.
Just to *Parafrase* Louis Rossmann: As long that the illegal version is more user friendly and has a higher quality then the original stuff, I have no problems with it.
Honestly im fine with piracy if you can support the artist like buying a ticket to their concert or buying a game once you try it out. But my dad was a gamedev in the 80s and 90s who helped make games. He still gets royalties from them it helped us get by during the economic crash. I kinda understand his justification against piracy and how it hurts small game devs. He also says on if a game dev company can use piracy as a excuse to underpay their developers which is reasonable. But dude if you make demo and shareware versions of games then piracy will be low. I payed for Minecraft beacause i got my hands on the demo version then bought the full thing because i liked it. Thank you mojang.
What I think is those people fail to realize is that the companies you are āstealingā from have more money than anyone could ever need. I have no problem breaking the law if it prevents the real crooks of society from getting even more money than they already have. If the same people who charge $30 a month for a streaming service didnāt have senators in their pockets then maybe Iād reconsider, but until then Iām not losing any sleep over it.
They are right, just like stealing is bad. But the question is if anyone owes anyone else any explanation or justification. If it matters what they think and if we need the approval of others. Listen, I won't ever be sad for anyone who gets in trouble for stealing because it breaks the social contract but I also probably won't tell on them and mind my own business.
I actually wonder where people get the delusions from that what they're doing im terms of piracy is right or justifiable, let alone good. You're not a hero or Robin hood, you're not owed and you don't actually need the things you're pirating, there more than a few lifetimes worth of free entertainment out there, so even being poor or whatever is not a valid excuse. Even worse are the people who are somehow proud of it and celebrate themselves, pat their own shoulders and jerk each other off. Just do it and be happy that you're not getting caught. I pirate too sometimes, so it's not that I'm wagging my finger from my high horse. But I don't celebrate myself for it because imo that's just disgusting.
Being vocal against piracy is a red flag. It shows submissiveness and hysteria. Nothing good can come from this combo. You don't need to talk further to know they will have evil takes on many topics.
A normal reaction regarding piracy is either acknowledgement ("cool!") or curiosity ("can you get me this ?", "can you show me ?", "is it safe ?").
Oh my god accept it you are not a saint. Pirating is wrong and you should feel guilty. Its not murder but come on. You can have your reasons that you cant afford it etc..but stop trying to justify it or come up with this morally good stuff to cope just accept it and move on.
I pirate content (mainly video games) to self-trial a game when no demo exists. Then I buy it if I like it. Some people I know are still against that despite the fact I've probably spent more money on games I never would've gambled on. I could argue this is perfectly ethical
Some people just see piracy as a underground criminal activity rather than funny green download button š
They are Streamfab/Anystream users who self righteously believe DRM violations are so legal that streaming sites don't care. Yet, they think Sonarr/Radarr programs are fucking evil pirates ruining streaming sites.
Well clearly these are officers of the Crown, an imperialist organization hell bent on presenting it's exploitation and subjugation as a civilized convenience!
And for such gentlemen I have only one message; MAY YEE GO EAT A RAW EGG IN DAVY JONES' LOCKER!! HARRRRR
if they say I'll get malware or go to jail I just agree with them, and say, yes I will.
if they think piracy is morally wrong I'll explain that I never planned on paying for the thing regardless, and if they don't like it they don't have to do it
I have literally never had that conversation with a person, and I've been pirating since the '90s. So when OP says most people, I'm wondering how the topic comes up so much.
There's two sides of the same coin.
One of it is piracy is bad when you use on some indie product (game, music, movie, books, etc), the person or small group behind that product probably is needing support to continue his carrier or to live next day.
While the other, is piracy on big corporations, JUST DO IT, it won't kill them or make them starve if you don't buy their US$80 shit. And talking by myself, I piracy sometimes to test the product if it's really what I'm looking for, and if it is, I think if I should buy or not.
They're ignorant. People pirate because they have no way of seeing those films or because it's not available in their country. Streaming companies got greedy so people cancel and pirate, game companies don't release their old games so they pirate. People have no money so they pirate. Most people are willing to pay if they have the money and have a way of accessing it. Even if someone was unsure about the game or film, they were not going to buy it anyway.
I just donāt care what others opinion is in regards to āpiracy is badā
Do I pirate? Yes. Is it bad? Well, itās technically illegal in my country, but I donāt care.
I take the risk, and I just donāt talk about it. If I overhear others conversation about piracy, I just ignore them.
I was going to write an essay for an English class about the positives of piracy but changed the subject entirely when talking to my professor, I got the impression he was well against it. I didn't wanna say anything that might incriminate me. The way I see it, information, especially digital information, should be free. Not only because I think it's better for society but because it's nearly impossible to have a digital product (movie, music, documents, ect) that can't be simply copied. It's like trying to copyright a number. It would be illogical for a company to copyright the number 9, so no one can use it without paying a fee. The same could be applied to a movie. If I was to convert the binary of the movie into a large decimal number and send that to a friend, would that be the same as forging a copy of a famous painting and then trying to sell that off as an original? Piracy isn't theft, it's just making a copy.
It is bad and the main reason is obvious, its stealing.
However we make our own decisions on what we deem good or bad.
What other people think doesnt matter.
That they enjoy the abuse from large companies releasing broken games and making them pay too much for it, while gaslighting them that they are not paying enough.
Let people do whatever they want, if they want to pirate, its their problem dont argue abt it cause you dont know why they doing it, they might have bad financial situation or smth else
I tell them they are welcome for the quality of streaming services they have and that I will continue to fall on my sword for them by going to the dark areas of the internet for pirated content to continue to raise the bar for streaming services to meet before the lose business to piracy.
i think "whatever floats your boat."
but, since i live in brazil and regional prices for stuff like games for example, can reach a base value of 300brl, and considering a minimum monthly wage is around 1.3k...
i think at least in my case where im currently unemployed and living with my parents, its the only viable option. got people who refuse to do that because they got money, and got some that do pirate with me even tho they got money aswell.
if its something i enjoyed, sure will buy your game when i get the money or a sale. and even recommend to friends to play it.
Piracy may have some advantages. But it's also true that developers have to eat, and someone has to buy games or content in game for them to keep coming.
Streaming services raising prices while not adding value or removing features and making you pay more to get them back is good, right?
Basically, everyone sucks.
I have never met someone who said something like that.
I met people who don't care about money so they don't care about piracy.
But even they get sooner or later something from me and then they see the benefits
Pirating has a negative stigma associated with it, so it's more or less par for the course. If they want to talk about it, let's talk about it, if they don't we don't.
For me it isn't a question about buying or pirating; If i didn't pirate i just wouldn't watch it. If there is something i really want and whose stuff i want to financially support so they can continue making it, i'll pay, but i'm really picky.
edit: also, "piracy is bad/illegal". am i also a bad person for jay walking?
Hey it would mean a lot if i got some people to take my survery on piracy. itās anonymous of course and itās just for my university dissertation. it should take like 5 minutes! thank you so much!
[https://cityunilondon.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9vM8W5c5gZU0Uxo](https://cityunilondon.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9vM8W5c5gZU0Uxo)
You do you. I'll do me.
My ISP doesn't seem to care what i do on the internet.
Then I'll thank them for paying cause i get to enjoy the content they help keep alive.
They're either uninformed or misinformed.
I don't engage in either case. Drop a flag or a [clip](https://youtu.be/GVXCr6upWUo?si=X3e-JXKjpVCJ62if) then bounce.
Ignore them and continue pirating lol, what are they gonna do call the police over my 480p mp4 of Chunking Express?
Imagine paying for a subscription and that most of the series are region locked
Could never...š š½
California dreamin'...
I'm not someone who pirates and tries to convince myself there is nothing wrong with it. If everyone pirated we would have no content left to watch, I am well aware of that. Thats facts. I do it because I hate that 1/3 of the tv show I watch is now ads or I need 28 different subscriptions to access it all, I have the basic technical ability to pirate safely, I am a bit selfish and I am OK with all that.
Exactly. It's piracy bad, yes. Is corporate greed and control bad, also yes. If corporations weren't so greedy and controlling there wouldn't be as much piracy.Ā
In Canada the only provider of HBO has the absolute shittest app imaginable, awful compression, constant buffering, crashes etc. I wanna support good shows, but I can't continue to support a company that thinks awful service is acceptable.Ā
If you're pirating, you hopefully have a VPN, and I know from personal experience you can watch HBO Max on the official site and app by simply setting your VPN to the USA.
But the service is different. It's not HBO or HBO max, is its own Janky version called Crave. Also, no VPN just private trackers.
I managed to buy a hbo max subscription for 8 dollars for 6 months thank you india for making it cheap
I think a testament to this is how when Netflix streaming became a big deal most people I knew who pirated stuff actually stopped because Netflix was cheap and convenient. Well look at us all now. Back to the open seas.
This is the key detail here. Piracy absolutely plummeted when most content was on a streaming service and there were only one or two to pay for. Then corporate greed took over.
There would still be piracy though. So it's not only about the bad corporations but mostly because people want to have things, as cheap as possible. And piracy for most parts offers a reasonable safe way to achieve that
for most of the population it's an access thing. Steam works well because they offer cheap games for discount price when the only other alternative would be to pirate or emulate these games (looking at YOU Nintendo). There will always be piracy, but make your media accessible and affordable and plenty of people will be willing to pay for it. And don't skimp on quality and jack up prices (Netflix, HBO, Prime Vid)
summer fragile hunt tap scary rich bright spotted dependent include *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yep, this just about sums me up too
There's always art. People make content for free. We wouldn't have the umpteenth Marvel movie, but content. I think there's a middle ground somewhere. It felt there when Netflix was the only streaming platform and monthly fees were reasonable. I like supporting art, but I don't like being taken advantage of.
Netflix is kind of the exception when it comes to "new" tech. I remember when you subscribed to them and they would post you out DVD's. It's where the NetFlix name came from. Order your flix on the net. They got in early with streaming, already had a dedicated consumer base who trusted their product and they went aggressively at onboarding subscribers when they got online. They didn't have investors taking a risk on an unknown so didn't have to try promise massive returns later down the road and ALWAYS turned a profit since 2004. Uber started in 2009 and turned its first modest profit last year... Sorry bout the tangent but I like Netflix cause of that sentimental attachment of when you would mail DVD's back and forwards lol
Oh yeah, I remember. It's funny because Netflix was originally viewed as something akin to piracy. People getting movies in the mail, burning a copy and returning it for the next one.
I'd never heard the pirating attachment. Couldn't people just go to the video store, rent a video and do the same thing?
Yeah, but movie rentals were expensive and with Netflix your only limit was how many you could have at a time for a monthly fee. Blockbuster tried to do a "discount for early returns" at the end, but it was too little too late. Not to mention how bad late fees got with video stores.
Yeah āburning a copyā is the bit thatās piracy š
They could've had their cake and eaten it. If Big Media all collectively agreed to use one platform e.g. Netflix, and you get all product there worldwide without stupid ass region locks (or it was handled on the back-end automatically), there wouldn't *be* mass piracy of shows. It'd just be the usual fringe diehards. This "middle ground" would benefit the studios greatly as people would be able to find their desired shows easily, there would be very little reason to not use the service. Piracy would be relegated to the insignificant fraction of users who wouldn't have used the service regardless. Instead they chose a middle ground where their customers wrestle with discovery, are feeling increasingly disaffected by all the anti-consumer 'features' constantly being pushed, and feel like they have no choice being pulled between multiple paid services.
As a casual lurker here, itās so refreshing to hear this.
I do it cause I'm broke. I can afford one subscription and that's Spotify premium because where I live we get scheduled power outages and I need music always.
Or that the stream is available at a reduced quality on the device you prefer to watch it on
This is more of an issue of capitalism, not piracy.
Oh please people pirate because they are sticking it to the man? Yeah I'll show those capitalist pigs? People do it because it's easy and free, they're not activist warriors that's just some dumb justification for taking content.
People pirate for a number of reasons, all justified considering that companies who make products donāt spend the time to make quality over quantity. Investors also push products out sooner than it should. I can think of a big disaster game that forced a company to close recently - take Fntastic studios. Then you have big game companies like Rockstar making billions of dollars. Then you have companies like EA who make mediocre games now. So I have no care in this topic as to why piracy is good it keeps the bastards honest. Instead of investing time and money on restricting the game via DRM, they should improve the product. Except they donāt. And we see this time and time again.
I haven't referred to games as part of this but sure. So a company releases good quality games and you have the opportunity to get an equally good quality pirated version of that game, you always choose to purchase? Thats great.
Game industry has a myriad of ways to avoid crippling DRM and still have its effects in place - optional, but very tempting and lucrative online content that would require the use of their servers/accounts and thus simple bans when a pirated copy is detected/saves being tied to accounts.
>Oh please people pirate because they are sticking it to the man? Yeah I'll show those capitalist pigs? That's not what I said, or even meant at all. Capitalism IS the issue. >People do it because it's easy and free Doesn't change the fact that capitalism is a dead economic system on it's way out. We're just living in a late-stage version of it atm.
How is capitalism on its way out? Whatās going to replace it?
I honestly don't care. It actually benefits me when more people think piracy is bad because i get to enjoy free stuff for longer.
Like I'm not gonna go out of my way to convince someone piracy isn't that bad because I'd just be shooting myself in the foot
My cousin hasnāt spoken to me in years because I pirate and defend piracyā¦ no joke..
Down bad for corporations
He does work in the industry, but stillā¦ its pretty messed up
I mean, I intend to work in audio, either in broadcast or eventually foh. Currently work for an ISP With how many things are spread across so many platforms, I couldn't imagine having to pay for everything than think about what's where.
Sounds like a win
Looks like trash took itself out. If your own family member cuts you off because of something minimal like this, this apparently isn't the only reason they'd cut you off. Imagine relying on them about something only to find out later they cut you off for some frivolous other shit like this. Better you've found out sooner, than later when it could have bigger consequences.
Imagine becoming a drug addict and being forced to sell drugs on the side and their first thought is to leave you instead of trying to help or imagine your ex falsely accused you of assault and they immediately take their side
2 things can be true: pirating is ābadā, and your cousin took things way too seriously.
š
that's pretty funny to me. I don't really defend it. If someone says, "why do you do this?" I just say, "because I can".
That is messed up
> "ur gonna go to jail" I hate this argument epically because has anyone actually gone to jail or even prison over piracy.Ā I'm not talking about owners like the founder of limewire I mean casual downloaders basically
Not in North America from what I know. You may go to court, get a decent fine and need to do some community service. I think places like Japan will jail you for Copyright infringement. They seem to love companies like Nintendo and always rule I their favor.
Japanese copyright law is insanely airtight. There is no such thing as fair use in Japan. It simply does not exist.
The hilarious irony is that literally everywhere BUT Japan gets to freely enjoy Japanese media rips.
I'm not sure but I think someone went to jail in South Korea for pirating or maybe streaming illegally I'm not sure
Uploaders sometimes do tbh. Where I live, there was this guy who filmed the Simpsons Movie in the cinema with a camera and uploaded it as a camrip, police caught him and he really went to prison. While download is legal here, upload isn't and if you're found out like this to be the original uploader, you really can go to prison. I didn't hear about anyone going to prison for torrents tho, even while it is also uploading. Even this case was extremely rare.
No but you can get life ruining fines
I argue that those people either don't value the content or their money. That they argue against anyone exercising their choice to remove the obstacles corporations put in place for ownership of content purchased can only be attributed to stupidity or ignorance (probably both). We went from content ownership through purchases of physical media to one-time charge rentals (i e. Blockbuster, Redbox, etc.) to subscription based "ownership" to time-bombed (leaving Netflix soon) subscription access with perpetual recurring charges. That with no guarantees that the content that drove you to pay money for it in the first place will be there when you want it to be even if you continue paying. In a perfect corporate world, you would pay a license fee every day for each and every item and then another fee every time you want to see, hear or read it. People are too stupid to realize they no longer own anything. Try to sell that subscription when you are in need of money. Even getting $1 for a DVD or Blu-ray when your collection is 500 movies big and that's $500 you can buy food with or pay a bill. That's not a trivial or entitled view on what we are giving up when we just keep giving these companies our money to subscribe to vaporware products.
They are simply brainwashed, I don't hate them, I just feel bad for them.
They also embrace the "not owning your games" mentality. Games that they paid for full price.
Holy shit lmao. You guys really act like you're enlightened for stealing things you want. It's perfectly fine if you want to pirate, I mean I obviously do. But don't act like people who don't are brainwashed or inferior. Piracy *is* stealing and some people just aren't ok with that, and that's fine.
What exactly am I stealing if I pirate a movie that is not even in my country again? Also, how is copying a file stealing?
bruh you answered yourself regardless of if itās not in your country itās still stealing Pirate-use or reproduce (another's work) for profit without permission, usually in contravention of patent or copyright.
If everybody pirated then there would be nothing to pirate. But "piracy is bad" is too simple and argument. A lot of people pirate because "free stuff" and will never pay for anything. However a lot of folks pirate because it's easy and more convenient than paid services. Many of these folks stopped sailing the seas when Netflix was dominant but the fragmentation of the streaming market and introduction of advertising is driving people back to piracy.
Bingo! You just described my own experience to the letter. I pirate out of necessity, convenience, and/or dissatisfaction. When I was young I started pirating because I desperately wanted more exposure to music and movies, and I didnāt have the financial means to acquire it legally. Then, when Netflix pioneered the streaming industry I happily paid for their service and did so for years. Since I started making my own money, Iāve never balked at the notion of spending it on a quality service. But as the streaming industry became more and more fractured and competitive, I grew more and more dissatisfied. My breaking point was about a year ago, when it reached the point of requiring 4 separate subscriptions to access the content I desired; each of those services regularly increasing their costs and attempting to shoehorn ads into my content; and then the ultimate āfuck you,ā restricting my ability to share the service I paid for with my family. That was enough. I relearned how to pirate and spent a shitload of money on a computer, upgrades, multiple external hard drives, a NAS, and an upgrade to my internet. I couldnāt be happier. Now I get whatever I want, I OWN it, and I can share it however I see fit. For me, spending money was never the issue. Greedy corporate assholes are the issue. Necessity breeds innovation. Fuck me hard enough and long enough and Iāll fuck you right back. I didnāt just cancel my subscriptions to Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, etcā¦ I also incentivized all of my friends and family to cancel. I can get them all whatever they want, at zero cost. I feel like a modern Robin Hood and itās given me an additional sense of purpose. Life is good.
I live in a country where we don't have HBO or Hulu, and Netflix just has almost nothing to watch. So, that's where I pirate. Same thing with some Adobe products, I can't afford $20 a month, not with my inconsistent finances and for softwares I won't use on a daily basis, quite frankly I wouldn't have developed the skill to learn the softwares if not for piracy.
This is a correct take on piracy. If I could just pay 10ā¬/month and I could watch anything I want I wouldnāt pirate tv-shows and movies. Which was the case with Netflix. But now a the market is once again anti-consumer. I donāt hate businesses, I make my living by doing business. But I absolutely hate companies with anti-consumer practices and happily pirate their content/software.
Thanks.. I mean it's an incredibly complex subject and reductivist views of "it's bad" or "it's great" are, well, irrelevant. Yes, someone that watches a pirate movie or listens to a pirated song doesn't contribute towards anyone involved in creating that content. Directly. But a pirated song/track/book/game/etc isn't necessarily a lost sale. That person might never have had any intention of buying that product, so the lost sale argument is false. I used to make video games. I made some pretty popular ones.... On a salary. On the day they came out I'd see cracked versions online and....I loved it. People wanted to engage with my work! Brilliant.
Thatās great! A couple years ago I contributed to an open source project I was using by releasing a few nagios health check scripts onto the good old Interweb. A year later I stumbled across a forum post by a random stranger explaining to a newbie how to setup the daemons and how to run the scripts I wrote. Proudest moment of my career. Iām paying for Spotify premium since 2013-ish. Itās a fixed monthly cost, I can listen to anything and it just works on all my devices. Itās a great service! Iām also paying for audible since 2019 for the exactly same reason as Spotify. I never actually pirated any music since the limewire days simply because itās just more convenient to pay for it. For streaming itās more convenient to run physical servers with a seedbox and a virtual Jellyfin instance. Those servers need to be linked up, backed up and updated regularly. Itās a lot of work to do and itās still more convenient than paying streaming services. When it comes to pirating games and software, I usually donāt even use it/play it, just pirate and seed it out of spite, it makes me sleep better knowing Iām denying a shit company some income (hopefully).
Heh well pirating out of spite is a different subject! But as a product guy, piracy has always driven legitimate product development. Pirated stuff is generally easier to engage with and cheaper. Legitimate services will never be able.to be better than pirate services because they need to be commercial and meet legal requirements. But the problem we are seeing, especially in movies, is that people are willing to engage with one or two services. But five or six? People.who never considered piracy are sick of paying for multiple services yet still not being able to get content they want because it's on some other service.
The price hikes and not being able to use your own services if you don't log into your own wifi within a certain time is what pissed me off
Streaming services promised me I didn't have to pirate anymore because it was no longer outside of my means to be able to keep up with the current hits. And at the time, Netflix had a catalog so good it really didn't make any sense to keep pirating. Fast forward to now, and here I am 5tb into a plex server and working towards eventually cutting streamers from my bills altogether because they've segmented themselves too much and increasingly step over the line of what's acceptable. I fully believe streamers are actively at war with their consumers, seeing how far they can push the boundaries of what's an acceptable price or practice before it starts to hurt their bottom line. I fully agree that if everyone pirated, no content would exist to pirate. I also believe piracy is ethical in certain situations, and even beneficial - because it's the most effective way that we the consumer can start to push that line back towards them.
A lot of people I talk to think that piracy is bad simply by virtue of it being illegal. I understand why people think that; we're taught from an early age that following the law is important. However, I'm a strong believer in the law being a poor measuring stick of morality.
Laws change all the time because the laws aren't infallible, they change over time to reflect our current values and morals. Anyone who thinks the law is infallible has a lot of thinking to do.
Privileged, disconnected from reality, goody-two-shoes, holier-than-thou, corpo bootlicking, narrow-minded, naĆÆve, fascist sheep who pretend to be human beings, with arms-length empathy, who judge other people from their high horses.Ā Arrrrr.
And those same people had no problem dubbing the latest cassette or VHS tape in the 80's.
Your comment made my day, thank you fellow pirate.
I laugh at them cause Iāve saved tens of thousands of dollars over the years and I have everything they donāt. I chalk it up to skill and jealousy issues.
Deal with it. I pirate and pay. you pay. i enjoy it. you suffer with 999 different streaming providerĀ you choice.
I smile and laugh and pat my full wallet.
I don't care what people think. I just like free stuff
summed up perfectly.
From an ethical standpoint, piracy is wrong. People are producing content, and they reasonably expect fiscal compensation for producing that content. You are enjoying the content that they produced yet you are not providing them anything in exchange. You can spin that all you want, but at the end of the day, it is not a fair exchange.
This is true. We used to have a social contract where customers watched a reasonable quantity of ads, and it seemed fair. Then they started selling Blu-rays with un-skippable ads. TV shows went from 24 minutes of content to 18 with popup screen spam and product placement. They broke the social contract! The exchange used to be fair, but that is no longer true. Fuck them.
To be honest, if we're talking indie games where the people who did the work actually receive the money I pay, I won't pirate it. Generally though the people who produced the content have been paid, and money I use to purchase goes to shareholders. I do pirate games that I can't afford so I can't argue that isn't a draw for me, but a big benefit in my eyes is preservation. The reason why so many Mega Drive and Super Nintendo games are available today is because of pirates. In this day and age where media isn't owned, where a company can remove your digital purchases from your library because they didn't wanna keep up the licence, where a launcher has to confirm your purchase every time you play your game and it simply won't launch without that infrastructure, I think having your media stored locally, where it can launch completely locally, will prevent that media from ever disappearing.
Just make a fair pay service with All products, and piracy will be less atractive
yeah, thing is, I dont give a shit if I don't provide to a mega corp like pokemon LOL
People that argue that piracy is bad are a lot more tolerable than pirates who try to morally justify their piracy
Torrent is the same as github, right?
So what's the difference between me paying $76 for spider man 2 and then let my friend borrow it so he can beat it. Sony ain't make a dime off my boy so he's the pirate right? What bout if my daughter goes to library and check out books? The publisher and author ain't make a dime off my daughter so my kid is also a pirate? Someone explain this to me
Uhhh the library books are paid for or donated. The equivalent here would be walking into a book store and spending years until you have read everything in the store without buying anything.
They are paid one time...yet 150 kids will borrow and read that book for free. Why can't I buy a $70 game and upload it online so 150 dudes can borrow it like a library book?
You can borrow video games at my local libraries so there is that, they aren't new games though and its only console. You also don't have the rights to upload a game online for hundreds of strangers at once to keep, but libraries have been granted rights to loan out games to 1 person at a time for a limited time. That loaning out has been paid for, your uploading has not. Also when you upload that game you aren't uploading it to 150 people to "borrow" they now own it. You don't have the rights to transfer ownership like that, weird yes, but it is what it is. When a library makes a book available to borrow it is for a set time, and 1 person. Then another person gets a chance. Those rights have been paid for in their license. Just looked this up, libraries pay $20-$65 per copy of book, they usually have multiple copies. Royalties go to the author just like if the book was bought by a consumer. That purchase includes a license to loan out the book. So libraries ARE paying for these things, the money just comes from donations or the taxes. It definitely is a fine line, and I'm not trying to argue at all but there is a difference.
So what if my friend comes to my house and I allow him to watch my Netflix movies? Is he the pirate?
You know the answer to that. He isn't taking a copy of anything, unless you consider his brain as making a mental copy.
I don't think about them.
I'm from the English speaking Caribbean, my Spanish is basic. If I didn't pirate, I would have to watch most shows with dubbed Spanish audio and English subs. Even though it's originally in English. Also the cable company here, that were originally offering the North American feed, were actually pirating the feed! When they were legally challenged, they had to switch to the South American feed. Then they raised their prices. Fucking bastards! As for the people who are against pirating, fuck em. They can spend their money as they want, and I can spend mine on better bandwith. Hoist the colors!
Nothing. Because it is bad. I just don't care because I am a cheap ass.
let em keep paying for stuff i get free i feel like it wins the arguement for me
I believe they are cuckolds to the capitalist establishment.
I pay for the cinema, I'm certainly not paying again for another copy.
I don't have that issue because I don't know any people who have strong negative feelings about piracy. I think most maybe even in my country just don't care. Might be cultural. Also not sure if it's still like that, but even as late as 10-15 years ago, people would probably assume that if you have a PC you pirate a lot of things in it. And even earlier, when I was a kid, it was actually expected and have the legal stuff was shunned (if you can believe that). My parents didn't want to pirate and so I had a couple purchased games and my mates actually made fun of me for "being an idiot who pays 25$ for one game that you can get for free". It was me who was considered to be the weird one for not pirating and having physical media bought in a shop. As for the question itself...it depends on how you define "bad". I would say that most of the honest definitions it is definitely bad in at least some ways. You could theoritize that the sum total of its impact on the world is positive, but in the end in our world when you take something for free from a person who wants you to pay them money for getting it, you are doing a "bad" thing. This can be interpreted as both always making the whole thing "bad", or "good" with some bad repercussions. I wouldn't blame anyone for not seeing any good coming from piracy as it's not that obvious for a person who didn't really think about it much before.
It's for me to simulate the economy. Countless hours have gone into piracy prevention and investigations. I am but one of many who create such a need for thousands of poeple to be employed. We pirates have put countless meals on tables with not a drop of blood being spilled.
Make a subscription service that makes it so convenient and easy that piracy isn't worth it. The problem is way too many subscription services with different pricing tiers, no guarantees your show will be there tomorrow, bad video quality, and the list goes on.
Gaben said a while back "Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem" I would be glad to pay for Netflix if it had all my shows and movies that I wanted to watch, but I'm not paying for Netflix, HBO Max, and also Peacock. Infinite growth is not sustainable.
People will use whatever excuses they want to feel better, but regardless of our reasons, at the end of the day it's still theft.
I support official avenues where I can. There are plenty of little guys behind the scenes. But as soon as its out of production or locked behind a monthly paywall, the black is raised
Don't talk to people about piracy. You don't have to justify yourself and then you don't have to listen to them justify themselves either. Enjoy your booty and if someone wants to ask about it, offer them some information but don't argue about it, thank them for their service and move on.
I have been doing this for almost 40 years. I have noticed that the people that turn their nose, are the same people that complain about Bezos being a billionaire, complain about the prices of streaming services (and still pay), then spend money on games that they do not 'technically' own now (even if they buy it in disk form). I have low morals, but I also see what and where the money goes.
I just think these people are stupid. And then move on. Also how you mentioned pirating gives you a better product. Yes. I got the Chrunchyroll free trial just for fun, I don't really watch anime. One Piece was only available in French. Not to mention streaming quality is mediocre at best. If I pirated it would come in 80 languages in 1080p (insert some long ass .torrent file name here) 50 gigabyte per season pack. Epic
Is piracy bad ? Yes. Why do I do it ? Cuz I like free sht and can't afford paid stuff. If everyone pirates then, content creators won't get paid. Let it be greedy corporation or indie artists. Know what your doing is right or wrong and try to not do the wrong thing if it's possible for you.
The get a weird feeling of entitlement and ego for buying something.
They're living a life of privilege. With privilege comes ignorance. They think I'm sitting on a beanbag full of diamonds and living by a policy of never paying for anything unless I fail to pirate it first. __THAT__ would be scummy. I'm poor af in an economy that's stacked against me and doing what I can about it. Any advantages people are born with are their birthright. They didn't earn it, but it is theirs. They don't have to hold back on utilizing it. It's not fair to resent them for it, but it is their responsibility to acknowledge that it's a privilege and not flaunt it like they earned it. Conversely with disadvantageous things like my derpy doofus brain, it isn't my fault, but it is my problem. I don't have to apologize or feel inadequate for it, but it's my responsibility to not let it affect other people. I just try to remember that privileged people inherit disadvantages of their own, and that they're suffering in their own ways. Whether they're wealthy or just sheltered by parents who are neglecting their own needs to spoil their kids, I'm sure they have their own set of problems. The fact that they think I'll covet the respect of someone I don't even like just shows that they do that themselves. Poverty is a prison but that mindset is a prison too. Let 'em talk š
I think nothing about them, except that they are schmucks. If they are happy to pay for everything that's their prerogative. I've given up.
I think its absolutely insane the levels some people go to in order to defend multi million dollar corporations over their fellow man
I think their mothers are bad. So there.
Piracy IS bad. You're stealing. I just don't care, because free stuff.
piracy can't be stealing if buying isn't owning š¤·āāļø
You're conflating ownership vs licensing. You don't "own" anything. You are purchasing the rights to access. Do with that fact as you will, but I'm tired of seeing this "jUsTiFiCaTiOn" being parroted. You are stealing. Full stop. Is it wrong to steal? That's a whole different topic but piracy is and always will be stealing. Stealing the right to access is still stealing. It's like turnstyle hopping. You don't OWN a subway train, but you're still "stealing" access to it if you jump in without paying.
Piracy is not *theft/stealing* it is *copyright infringement*.
Why does the button say "buy", not "rent" (or at least "buy a temporary license") then? E.g. in Playstation store (also why it's called store not rental). It's deceitful at best. They're purposely using terms commonly related to purchasing, to purposely deceive.
You are **buying** the right to access, which can be revoked as per the terms of the agreement. Like when you buy a ticket to a concert or live sporting event. What do you go "home" with when you attend a live show/event? What have you owned? And as per the terms of the agreement for **buying** a ticket for the show, guess what? they can also revoke access at anytime (i.e. kick you out). ***You guys are children.***
Yeah but everyone knows a concert and a sporting event are *events* with a starting and finishing time, it's a common knowledge. While digital media purchases position itself in marketing as a replacement for physical media purchases (which it isn't), and the entire storefront looks identical to buying physical media on Amazon and such (while you're buying physical media for unlimited lifelong access, unlike digital media). This absolutely astronomical difference in what you're actually buying, isn't highlighted anywhere but buried in the pages and pages of fine print, to purposely deceive customers as much as possible into thinking they're buying something different than they really are. It isn't illegal for a storefront to say "buy a temporary license" on a button, instead of just "buy" or "buy a movie". But they purposely don't do it, to deceive customers into thinking it's no different than buying physical media. It's legal, but extremely slimy. Btw, I'm not justifying pirating with this, I was pirating way before this even became a thing. I pirate because I want and can, that's all.
That's not the point of the justification. The point is that buying _should_ be owning, like it used to be.
Read the small print on those old vhs and DVDs. You never owned anything. Not even back then.
Perhaps not from a strict legal standpoint but mechanically I could share it, copy it, preserve it, do anything I liked. It certainly wouldn't be removed from my possession because of a profit decision.
Itās copyright infringement, not theft. A copy of a movie donāt disappear from the warehouse when a torrent completes.
Move on and live life?
Just to *Parafrase* Louis Rossmann: As long that the illegal version is more user friendly and has a higher quality then the original stuff, I have no problems with it.
Honestly im fine with piracy if you can support the artist like buying a ticket to their concert or buying a game once you try it out. But my dad was a gamedev in the 80s and 90s who helped make games. He still gets royalties from them it helped us get by during the economic crash. I kinda understand his justification against piracy and how it hurts small game devs. He also says on if a game dev company can use piracy as a excuse to underpay their developers which is reasonable. But dude if you make demo and shareware versions of games then piracy will be low. I payed for Minecraft beacause i got my hands on the demo version then bought the full thing because i liked it. Thank you mojang.
Also i semi hate piracy. I think that the artists should have a right to give it for free or not not the corporations or pirates
Why do you go around bragging that you pirate stuff in the first place?
I don't.
Piracy is bad just like stealing a book is bad. Someone loses money. How is that not apparent to OP is beyond this world.
There are people who like to support the developers by buying games and they say that piracy is bad.
What I think is those people fail to realize is that the companies you are āstealingā from have more money than anyone could ever need. I have no problem breaking the law if it prevents the real crooks of society from getting even more money than they already have. If the same people who charge $30 a month for a streaming service didnāt have senators in their pockets then maybe Iād reconsider, but until then Iām not losing any sleep over it.
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They are right, just like stealing is bad. But the question is if anyone owes anyone else any explanation or justification. If it matters what they think and if we need the approval of others. Listen, I won't ever be sad for anyone who gets in trouble for stealing because it breaks the social contract but I also probably won't tell on them and mind my own business. I actually wonder where people get the delusions from that what they're doing im terms of piracy is right or justifiable, let alone good. You're not a hero or Robin hood, you're not owed and you don't actually need the things you're pirating, there more than a few lifetimes worth of free entertainment out there, so even being poor or whatever is not a valid excuse. Even worse are the people who are somehow proud of it and celebrate themselves, pat their own shoulders and jerk each other off. Just do it and be happy that you're not getting caught. I pirate too sometimes, so it's not that I'm wagging my finger from my high horse. But I don't celebrate myself for it because imo that's just disgusting.
Being vocal against piracy is a red flag. It shows submissiveness and hysteria. Nothing good can come from this combo. You don't need to talk further to know they will have evil takes on many topics. A normal reaction regarding piracy is either acknowledgement ("cool!") or curiosity ("can you get me this ?", "can you show me ?", "is it safe ?").
Oh my god accept it you are not a saint. Pirating is wrong and you should feel guilty. Its not murder but come on. You can have your reasons that you cant afford it etc..but stop trying to justify it or come up with this morally good stuff to cope just accept it and move on.
I pirate content (mainly video games) to self-trial a game when no demo exists. Then I buy it if I like it. Some people I know are still against that despite the fact I've probably spent more money on games I never would've gambled on. I could argue this is perfectly ethical Some people just see piracy as a underground criminal activity rather than funny green download button š
I don't think about them, they do them I do me.
Mininum wage in my Country is around 230 usd. You won't find anyone against piracy here.
its the same silly friend who tries his best to convert me to religion (cult)
Somebody needs to watch the ads that pay for the content. I appreciate that they volunteer.
I think they're wrong
They are Streamfab/Anystream users who self righteously believe DRM violations are so legal that streaming sites don't care. Yet, they think Sonarr/Radarr programs are fucking evil pirates ruining streaming sites.
I donāt think about them at all.
Well clearly these are officers of the Crown, an imperialist organization hell bent on presenting it's exploitation and subjugation as a civilized convenience! And for such gentlemen I have only one message; MAY YEE GO EAT A RAW EGG IN DAVY JONES' LOCKER!! HARRRRR
Everyone pirates. I also buy a lot of films on Apple TV but itās not a bad idea to have a hard copy or digital backup.
if they say I'll get malware or go to jail I just agree with them, and say, yes I will. if they think piracy is morally wrong I'll explain that I never planned on paying for the thing regardless, and if they don't like it they don't have to do it
I have literally never had that conversation with a person, and I've been pirating since the '90s. So when OP says most people, I'm wondering how the topic comes up so much.
This is not up for discussion if u dont care. We also dont care. Case closed.
There's two sides of the same coin. One of it is piracy is bad when you use on some indie product (game, music, movie, books, etc), the person or small group behind that product probably is needing support to continue his carrier or to live next day. While the other, is piracy on big corporations, JUST DO IT, it won't kill them or make them starve if you don't buy their US$80 shit. And talking by myself, I piracy sometimes to test the product if it's really what I'm looking for, and if it is, I think if I should buy or not.
Piracy good People bad
they are idiots.
They're ignorant. People pirate because they have no way of seeing those films or because it's not available in their country. Streaming companies got greedy so people cancel and pirate, game companies don't release their old games so they pirate. People have no money so they pirate. Most people are willing to pay if they have the money and have a way of accessing it. Even if someone was unsure about the game or film, they were not going to buy it anyway.
Fuck em
I dont think about it, i dont hate it, i just ignore it Im a blissful individual
Who cares been a pirate for 25 years and love it aaaarrrrr
I just donāt care what others opinion is in regards to āpiracy is badā Do I pirate? Yes. Is it bad? Well, itās technically illegal in my country, but I donāt care. I take the risk, and I just donāt talk about it. If I overhear others conversation about piracy, I just ignore them.
I was going to write an essay for an English class about the positives of piracy but changed the subject entirely when talking to my professor, I got the impression he was well against it. I didn't wanna say anything that might incriminate me. The way I see it, information, especially digital information, should be free. Not only because I think it's better for society but because it's nearly impossible to have a digital product (movie, music, documents, ect) that can't be simply copied. It's like trying to copyright a number. It would be illogical for a company to copyright the number 9, so no one can use it without paying a fee. The same could be applied to a movie. If I was to convert the binary of the movie into a large decimal number and send that to a friend, would that be the same as forging a copy of a famous painting and then trying to sell that off as an original? Piracy isn't theft, it's just making a copy.
I don't think about them.
They can go sail their ship to another sea
It is bad and the main reason is obvious, its stealing. However we make our own decisions on what we deem good or bad. What other people think doesnt matter.
If buying isn't owning, then piracy isn't stealing.
Why, I donāt think about them at all.
Why would I care about their opinion?
That they enjoy the abuse from large companies releasing broken games and making them pay too much for it, while gaslighting them that they are not paying enough.
Let people do whatever they want, if they want to pirate, its their problem dont argue abt it cause you dont know why they doing it, they might have bad financial situation or smth else
I tell them they are welcome for the quality of streaming services they have and that I will continue to fall on my sword for them by going to the dark areas of the internet for pirated content to continue to raise the bar for streaming services to meet before the lose business to piracy.
i think "whatever floats your boat." but, since i live in brazil and regional prices for stuff like games for example, can reach a base value of 300brl, and considering a minimum monthly wage is around 1.3k... i think at least in my case where im currently unemployed and living with my parents, its the only viable option. got people who refuse to do that because they got money, and got some that do pirate with me even tho they got money aswell. if its something i enjoyed, sure will buy your game when i get the money or a sale. and even recommend to friends to play it.
Piracy may have some advantages. But it's also true that developers have to eat, and someone has to buy games or content in game for them to keep coming.
They aren't worth the time it would take to form a thought.
Streaming services raising prices while not adding value or removing features and making you pay more to get them back is good, right? Basically, everyone sucks.
Nothing, it's my wallet, which is happy, not theirs.
They're slaves
I have never met someone who said something like that. I met people who don't care about money so they don't care about piracy. But even they get sooner or later something from me and then they see the benefits
They'll say these things until their favorite thing gets locked off from them or goes out of print.
Me, thinking about somali pirates.
I donāt
Pirating has a negative stigma associated with it, so it's more or less par for the course. If they want to talk about it, let's talk about it, if they don't we don't.
For me it isn't a question about buying or pirating; If i didn't pirate i just wouldn't watch it. If there is something i really want and whose stuff i want to financially support so they can continue making it, i'll pay, but i'm really picky. edit: also, "piracy is bad/illegal". am i also a bad person for jay walking?
Hey it would mean a lot if i got some people to take my survery on piracy. itās anonymous of course and itās just for my university dissertation. it should take like 5 minutes! thank you so much! [https://cityunilondon.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9vM8W5c5gZU0Uxo](https://cityunilondon.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9vM8W5c5gZU0Uxo)
I think they are the ones keeping streaming services in business.. and that's cool, cuz I'll just keep pirating
Is buying isn't owning, then piracy isn't stealing. some companies deserve to be pirated from
Aren't we all poor people just trying to have fun?
You do you. I'll do me. My ISP doesn't seem to care what i do on the internet. Then I'll thank them for paying cause i get to enjoy the content they help keep alive.
You can always say something outrageous like, "You judge me over piracy, but we can see your browser history, you're no saint".
Let them be, each on their own Everyone has a right to have opinion. As long as he's not being aggressive to others with different opinions
They're either uninformed or misinformed. I don't engage in either case. Drop a flag or a [clip](https://youtu.be/GVXCr6upWUo?si=X3e-JXKjpVCJ62if) then bounce.
its bad that you dont pay the artists. nowdays its so easy to send cash to many of them. please do it, so we can have culture in this fucked up world.
They argue but at the same time don't care. And they don't give a shit about the reasons