Pirate some things, pay for some things. It doesn’t have to be absolute.
Only a Sith deals in absolutes.
Because in the words of GabeN, piracy (in a 1st world country at least) is a service problem and not a pricing problem. Many things are worth paying for, especially when you are supporting smaller creators, artists and indie game devs. But when heavy-handed DRM’s and corporate shovelware and services that actively remove content I pay for makes it a shit experience. I’m gonna just torrent that shit, fuck 'em
But when heavy-handed DRM’s and corporate shovelware and services that actively remove content I pay for makes it a shit experience. I’m gonna just torrent that shit
The annoying hurdles are what get me. I’ve cracked a lot of the games that I own because I hate forced updates, going through an additional client, or being asked to sign in for another service that I won’t use.
I once had a valid office key… But since I reset my computer to often the amount of “free activations” was used up… There where so many hoops to jump through to re-activate it that it was easier to get a cracked key to activate my office version… That’s just sick
Some people are about piracy, others are about ownership and fighting back against neo digital feudalism
When I was younger I pirated because I didn’t have any money to spare for digital media. Today I have a stable income and can afford all these things but I still pirate because it’s just more convenient in many ways.
Whenever I consume something that I really like I 100% support the artist / developers mostly by buying this exact product and / or some merch or by going to their concerts (if it’s music related)
To me piracy is just a way of freedom. Which includes to respect other people if they like or dislike spending money on certain things. In my eyes we should not split this community in such a way because this would kill the essence of freedom to make your own choices
Isn’t it generally pointing out what was actually worth paying for?
Most of us are presumably adults who can afford to pay for things when they’re convenient. That’s what it’s about for me, convenience. If you’re not making it convenient for me to buy your thing fair and square, then I’m gonna pirate it.
In the case of small little indie bands, they often aren’t on torrent sites at all. Given the choice between Spotify and Bandcamp, I’m going to buy the album on Bandcamp 100% of the time. I can contribute to the artist more and usually end up with a vinyl copy on the process.
Pirating has always been a solution to poor ease of access to content. If I could pay a legitimate subscription for a site with the catalog of PTP or RED, I would do it in a heartbeat. It will never happen though.
Other people have made good points but this guy wins.
Now that unlocks a memory, what was this show called (if it was a show)?
I’ve gone back after I’ve already pirated something and bought a legal copy if I thought it was worth it or if it’s in some sort of Humble Bundle deal that benefits charity and gets me a legal copy at the same time. Sometimes I’ll even pirate things I already bought & paid for because I want a backup copy (in the case of books or tabletop games).
I pirate a lot of books since I love to read, if I particularly liked a book or an author then I donate the cost of the books if the author has that option (most do)
People generally will fairly buy content when it’s available and fairly priced if they want to support the creators. There’s a huge difference between wanting to help your favorite content producer VS companies that fart out mult-hundred dollar box sets of old content
I ain’t cheap, I just don’t like my money going to billionaires who give us nothing in return. I pay for email, I don’t pay to watch a Marvel film.
I don’t think it’s that hard.
You…pay for email???
Proton!
The fuck if I’m gonna let Google train an AI off my emails.
Some people do. There are options (like Proton) that offer good services that respect their users and their privacy and I personally like to support that
A lot of us pay for privacy focused email because we don’t want Google or MS steal our data
Aye, as @forensic_potato said. And they have really good free options too, that are actually improved upon feature wise (only usage is limited)
Gonna pay once I can actually afford it.
You have to pay to get a real domain
I do my best to pay for things from creators who are making a living from it, and I do my best to NOT pay for things that line a multi-billion dollar company’s pocketbook.
Disney won’t pay their writers, actors, etc anything close to what they are really worth – so I pay what I can to people who don’t even manage to make THAT much. I pay for indie games, I pay for things that have proven their value (Warframe…totally free to play. They made $300 off of me after me playing for 2 YEARS without having to spend a dime, because I was appreciative of a game so well made and that made me happy for that long)
And these days, it’s not even worth the hassle of pirating games – too many chances for an executable to bite you in the ass and I’ve gotten to lazy to set up sandboxes/VMs, etc in order to limit their damage - so in most instances I only pirate movies/anime these days.
There’s a general sense of you should try to ethically pirate. Like no one cares if you shoplift from Walmart, but you’re a dick doing it to the local mom and pop grocery store who’s barely getting by.
On a more selfish level, paying for the things you enjoy shows whoever made it they’ll get money for it. Simple as that. If you really enjoy something stealing it isn’t going to convince them to make more. There’s been more than once where a game or show got pirated more than bought legally and it’s killed any future projects for it.
I’m pretty sure ethical pirating is mostly just justifying it to oneself.
That said, these corporations regularly steal from their customers and employees in many ways they can and cannot see. In that respect, pirating is more of a way to fight back.
Stealing is not ethical, but these profiteers do much worse on a daily basis, including stealing from those who created their profit engines. See Bill Willingham’s recent release of Fables to the public domain for a common example.
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Cracking groups have always said they do it for the challenge and if u like the game you should go buy it. Crackers and warez ftp groups have never dissuaded anyone from paying for the stuff they crack and release.
I don’t mind paying for things when the value proposition is there. Just in entertainment, the prices get skewed way outside value.
Here’s a supporting example; my son wants to see Blue Beetle. I checked it out, and the rental is $20 - for a streamed “right to view” which means there is zero marginal cost for them to produce, track, or retrieve it. Even with recent inflation, you can get a restaurant meal for that.
Piracy isn’t a “movement” it’s a means to an end.
To consider it anything more that “get shit for free or delisted/abandoned” is cringe.
It does feel like a lot of people trying to justify their piracy are just looking for excuses for something that they personally feel is wrong, but they want to do anyway… but I do think that free access to data and information is something that people can legitimately care about. Libraries are a good socially acceptable example of this (and they definitely fall under the “get shit for free” movement!), and it’s not entirely crazy or cringe for people to want more libraries in life and fewer walled gardens.
Give me an opportunity to pay to access the content easily for a reasonable price. It’s all I ask.
I used to have a huge pirated music collection, and now I have no pirated music at all because it became convenient and reasonably priced to listen to the music I want the way I want to listen to it.
For quite awhile I had no pirated TV or Movies because the content I wanted to watch was available on Netflix and HBO Go. Now I have a lot of content pirated because I’m not going to pay $10-$25 monthly to pay for a streaming service for every show I want to watch. And another $10-$25 monthly for every show my kids want to watch.
To be clear, I am not claiming any moral high ground. That shit is out there for free and unless these companies can find a way back to reasonably-priced streaming I am going to continue taking it because I have a limited budget and TV/Movies are only worth a certain amount of money to me.
Absolutely! It’s also frustrating that you can’t just buy a digital copy of a movie or something for a relatively cheap price? I just want the digital equivalent of bargain bin DVDs and libraries. I don’t want to pay $20/mo to not own anything?
Oh when it comes to digital preservation it’s all good we need that as it’s often the only way to access a ton of media.
Just don’t tell me you’re fighting capitalism cuz that computer and Internet connection says otherwise 😂 also if you’re boycotting something like Ubisoft or Disney, like don’t even pirate their stuff, what are you doing?
It definitely seems more idealistic when it’s academic papers instead of Marvel movies, haha. Still, I guess it feels like the only way to get the upper hand for some people, so I can kind of understand the catharsis. I think for most people it’s just “get shit free”, some people feel like it’s a small act of rebellion, some people want an excuse to feel better about it, and some people probably are actually more idealistic about it.
I think there are legitimate questions for society in relation to piracy, though. Copying and transmitting data is essentially free in the modern era, and I feel like we still haven’t really figured out what that should mean. The issue of ownership is getting really weird in the digital age too… Like you used to be able to lend and resell things, and libraries with physical media were a simpler concept… but these things are tricky and cause problems when copying and sharing is so effective. I think there’s arguments to be had that this a pretty fundamental shift and that we should potentially reconsider how media and other things work economically.
I forgot about academic papers. That shit should be on Wikipedia or Archive. Literal knowledge shouldn’t be copyright-able. Shout out to the data hoarders on that one.
EXACTLY. Academic publishing is actually kind of insane. It’s not like buying the paper even funds the research, it just goes to the publisher… and sure, you could argue that they do a service by basically being a muster point for peer review… but it just feels SO WRONG to put research (especially public funded research) behind a paywall.
The case for movies and games is absolutely a more contentious issue, but there are some similar arguments for the current system being a little dated (especially with respect to copyright law and how long it takes before works enter the public domain). All things being equal (e.g., assuming the creators can still make a living) the more people who have access the better! Of course it’s far less important that you can watch the latest movies or whatever (vs somebody accessing a research paper about a disease they have or something), but it’s still a bit of a shame to restrict access, and it feels like your ability to own copies of media is being eroded over time… And maybe that is worth caring about a little bit?
Ugh, self-righteous pirates are the fucking worst. My brother in Christ, you’re pirating Assassins’ Creed 14. Just fucking say you’re stealing it. You don’t need to sugar-coat it.
Right? It’s cool! I won’t judge.
