I do think you should give money to smaller creators, if you have it, but i don’t think thats super controversial, pirating is most effective against the billionares.
I completely agree with you but would go one step further - piracy is not only “not immoral”, it is ethically necessary. Without piracy the hard work people have put into their creations (e.g. for the Nintendo WiiU/3DS) could vanish at the whim of one small group of people (in this example, Nintendo C-level execs). Of course there are other reasons too. But this alone is sufficient IMHO.
Piracy is not immoral, but if it’s too widespread it can destroy opportunities for people creating things to get paid for creating things, and so they may not be able to continue doing so. And that just makes the world worse.
Try to find a way to support the people that make stuff that you love. For example I won’t pirate music from small bands, I only pirate games if they have onerous DRM or something (never indie games), and I’ll only pirate books if they’re ridiculously overpriced and I can’t get a standalone DRM free version.
Just cos you’re a pirate doesn’t mean you can’t have morals.
Can you even buy ebooks these days without going though Amazon? Aside from an incredibly small amount of indie authors (who probably got kicked from Amazon for unknowingly pissing off some algorithm) there’s no place to download them and support the authors.
Most people working on big media productions (movies, shows, games) get a fixed price or salary for doing so. The owners / publishers (maybe also big stars in movies which already are millionaires) get all of the rest when a production sells good.
So by buying / paying for subscription services you only support big c-suite assholes which sit on the rights to media which they have contributed nothing to, except for capital maybe. I won’t pay some intransparent big corporation to be able to watch a 10 year old movie / show just to make those people richer.
This is basically why I do it. I can’t afford streaming services, especially since you need multiple these days. I used to just use Netflix back when it was a good option. It was cheap and good enough to be worth it.
If I didn’t pirate it, I wouldn’t be able to consume it at all at this point, it’s that simple.
But despite my own self being in poverty, most of the people I know are not, so by talking to them about the media I watched free, and getting them to consume it as well, it increases the chances of the company profiting anyway. Just not off me.
These companies think they are losing out on money due to piracy, but they aren’t. They just assume we’d all pay for it if we didn’t have a choice. They don’t seem to realize sometimes it’s about not being able to pay, not just not wanting to pay. There’s no additional money to be had from a lot of us.
This is actually a very underrated comment imho. The term piracy is used to make what those of us on this community do look worse. I prefer the term sharing because that is usually what you do when you ‘pirate.’ If you seed a torrent or host a ddl site, you are sharing.
Can you even buy ebooks these days without going though Amazon? Aside from an incredibly small amount of indie authors (who probably got kicked from Amazon for unknowingly pissing off some algorithm) there’s no place to download them and support the authors.
At least in the EU there are plenty of alternatives. Big book retailers often have an ebook download shop as well as publishers running their own ebook stores. Google Play books, iBooks and others are also around, although much smaller than Amazon. Ironically it’s mostly the indie authors that are only on Amazon because they made it “easy”.
Can you even buy ebooks these days without going though Amazon? Aside from an incredibly small amount of indie authors (who probably got kicked from Amazon for unknowingly pissing off some algorithm) there’s no place to download them and support the authors.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
⚓ Dedicated to the discussion of digital piracy, including ethical problems and legal advancements.
Piracy is always moral against large companies. It hurts literally no one.
I do think you should give money to smaller creators, if you have it, but i don’t think thats super controversial, pirating is most effective against the billionares.
Forget effectiveness, the little guys rarely screw you over for their own greed.
True dat
When you purchase digital media, you’re purchasing a method to get past DRM to access the content. Nothing more.
When you pirate digital media, you’re using other means to acquire a method to get past DRM to access the content. Nothing more.
We’ve decided arbitrarily that some methods of getting past DRM are better than others despite the result being the same.
You can’t purchase digital media. All you’re allowed to purchase is a revokable license to consume it under some corporation’s terms.
In my opinion, piratary is not immoral at all. The human knowledge was built socially, it’s fruits should be shared socially.
I completely agree with you but would go one step further - piracy is not only “not immoral”, it is ethically necessary. Without piracy the hard work people have put into their creations (e.g. for the Nintendo WiiU/3DS) could vanish at the whim of one small group of people (in this example, Nintendo C-level execs). Of course there are other reasons too. But this alone is sufficient IMHO.
Piracy is moral as long as it doesn’t hurt actual people, corporations don’t count
You can’t hurt anybody by downloading something on your own computer.
I meant like indie devolopers and such
FACTUAL
Piracy is not immoral, but if it’s too widespread it can destroy opportunities for people creating things to get paid for creating things, and so they may not be able to continue doing so. And that just makes the world worse.
Try to find a way to support the people that make stuff that you love. For example I won’t pirate music from small bands, I only pirate games if they have onerous DRM or something (never indie games), and I’ll only pirate books if they’re ridiculously overpriced and I can’t get a standalone DRM free version.
Just cos you’re a pirate doesn’t mean you can’t have morals.
Can you even buy ebooks these days without going though Amazon? Aside from an incredibly small amount of indie authors (who probably got kicked from Amazon for unknowingly pissing off some algorithm) there’s no place to download them and support the authors.
There’s the Google play store. I still prefer physical books though
Gotta love itch.io bundles for shopping indie games on a tight budget.
Most people working on big media productions (movies, shows, games) get a fixed price or salary for doing so. The owners / publishers (maybe also big stars in movies which already are millionaires) get all of the rest when a production sells good.
So by buying / paying for subscription services you only support big c-suite assholes which sit on the rights to media which they have contributed nothing to, except for capital maybe. I won’t pay some intransparent big corporation to be able to watch a 10 year old movie / show just to make those people richer.
There’s another one: access to media while in poverty
Access to culture itself if you think about it
fuckin well said.
I just listened to the Pirate Bay episode of Darknet Diaries, and I had never considered this. I couldn’t agree more.
This is basically why I do it. I can’t afford streaming services, especially since you need multiple these days. I used to just use Netflix back when it was a good option. It was cheap and good enough to be worth it.
If I didn’t pirate it, I wouldn’t be able to consume it at all at this point, it’s that simple.
But despite my own self being in poverty, most of the people I know are not, so by talking to them about the media I watched free, and getting them to consume it as well, it increases the chances of the company profiting anyway. Just not off me.
These companies think they are losing out on money due to piracy, but they aren’t. They just assume we’d all pay for it if we didn’t have a choice. They don’t seem to realize sometimes it’s about not being able to pay, not just not wanting to pay. There’s no additional money to be had from a lot of us.
There’s no need to rationalise pirating though
Not this again. This discussion was spammed on Reddit continuously, there’s no need to.
Everyone has their own opinion on it. You’re on pirate community, we all pirate. That’s it.
Pirating is definitely not the right word though.personally I never attacked a boat so I never engaged in piracy.
Don’t know if you knew this but the word piracy has two meanings
Mods! Seize and banish this lubber! He confesses that he partakes not in the maritime plunder of merchant vessels!
This is actually a very underrated comment imho. The term piracy is used to make what those of us on this community do look worse. I prefer the term sharing because that is usually what you do when you ‘pirate.’ If you seed a torrent or host a ddl site, you are sharing.
I still like to know why people pirate.
I’m still pro piracy lmao
Reddit just became a circlejerk of iTs ALlwaYs MoRaLLy CoRRect so I’m really hoping that doesn’t happen here.
Between my server, NAS, fees, time spent and troubleshooting it costs me more to run my own setup than to subscribe to Netflix and Disney+.
I prefer the convenience of having my own digital collection.
I will do it regardless of what people think of it, I don’t care if it is deemed ‘‘moral’’ or not.
They dont think it be moral, but it do.
I thought we let this type of discussion behind us when we left reddit
Can you even buy ebooks these days without going though Amazon? Aside from an incredibly small amount of indie authors (who probably got kicked from Amazon for unknowingly pissing off some algorithm) there’s no place to download them and support the authors.
Barnes and Noble in the US sells eBooks in epub format on their website
At least in the EU there are plenty of alternatives. Big book retailers often have an ebook download shop as well as publishers running their own ebook stores. Google Play books, iBooks and others are also around, although much smaller than Amazon. Ironically it’s mostly the indie authors that are only on Amazon because they made it “easy”.
Piracy is unmet consumer demand. - Gaben
Honestly it’s also back to being a price thing for me… Shit’s out of control, “sales” are $30 for a 5 year old game.
It seems like since the pandemic everyone and everything is raising prices and somehow they all have a reason, yet my pay stays the same…
I’m not trying to be a jerk, but if your pay has stayed the same for 5 years, you have a you-problem on your hands.
Can you even buy ebooks these days without going though Amazon? Aside from an incredibly small amount of indie authors (who probably got kicked from Amazon for unknowingly pissing off some algorithm) there’s no place to download them and support the authors.
Actually you can. Kobo for example has a great selection of ebooks. Those books will still be drm protected tho.
That’s fair, I didn’t specify DRM-free. Still probably better than buying through Amazon.
But I’d prefer to use my own ebook reader.
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