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Asklemmy @lemmy.ml
Ganesh Venugopal @lemmy.ml

Do you pirate? And do you justify pirating? i.e., what is your piracy philosophy?

Well, my friend, he's kinda poor he can't afford some books and some streaming services, so he pirates. He pirate books, audiobook and videos and other stuff. Sometimes he buys books he likes a lot out of loyalty to the author (yeah, I don't understand it either), he likes to read physical books, but yeah, if he hates the author or just wants to skim through it, he will download the book.

He usually doesn't like to pirate from small companies or professors who are trying to make a living by selling books, but from millionaires & plenty of mega corps which already have loads of money, he feels like it's the right move to pirate

Also, have you ever noticed that you have felt that the value of a product has decreased just because you didn't pay for it, thus you are less interested to read it? i.e., had you paid for the book, you would have more likely read that book.

He says he will buy stuff when his time is more valuable than money, let's all hope that day is soon.

What are your piracy habits?

461 comments

  • All culture belongs to everyone, therefore should be accessible to everyone.

    The sale of goods only concerns those who can and want to afford it.

    Sharing is not theft.

    Pirates are cool.

  • I cannot confirm, nor deny.

    But, I will say, once upon a time, before the days of netflix, if you wanted to watch things, you needed to spend a fuckload of money, to watch it on cable, with commercials every 10 minutes.... or, you drove to a blockbuster. So, you either did that, or you obtained the movie/tv/etc, via a torrent.

    Then, netflix came along, gave you a ton of content, at a reasonable price. And- then, there wasn't really much of an advantage to obtaining media via other alternative means. So, netflix took over by storm, and piracy went way down.

    Then, everyone wanted a piece of the action. So, then Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, HBO+, ESPN+, (And insert 50 other network-specific streaming services) jumped into the fray. Then, they all made exclusive streaming contracts. So, if you watch a handful of things, you would need a handful of streaming service subscriptions.

    And- again, the alternative option of piracy, became the better option, as you can watch whatever the f- you want, WHENever you want, without having to pay for 50 different subscriptions every month, just to watch a TV series, which they decide to cancel after the 2nd season.

    Do you justify?

    If the fucking scumbags didn't get greedy in the first place, we wouldn't be in this situation. But, no, everyone wanted an extremely generous piece of the pie, and now everything has went to shit again. Fuck those guys. Isn't like the actual actors/writers staring in movies gets any of the money anyways.

  • I had to write a research report in university about whether or not piracy hurt or helped the recording industry.

    From the research, I found multiple studies that compared brain activity of shoplifters compared to those of pirates. The area of the brain that lit up when stealing physical objects did NOT light up for those who pirated.

    Digital piracy is not theft. No one is hurt except for unrealized revenue. But if someone pirates, was that even potential revenue to begin with?

    It was also found that piracy allowed for greater reach of content which statistically resulted in more people attending live concerts (think of piracy as free advertisement). Concert attendance led to increase in ticket and merchandise sales.

    So overall? Piracy is good. It is only bad if you ignore multiple factors and only focus on short term bottom lines. A net positive.

  • If I didn't pirate everything, I wouldn't buy it anyway because I don't have money.
    I do not purchase any digital content.
    If I like some movies enough, I will purchase them on DVD. I like to have something physical.
    I'd do likewise with games, if I played any. If it's just download, I am not purchasing it. If it comes on disc/cartridge, sure.

    Exception to this is FOSS. FOSS is almost always free in cost, but if possible, I'll donate on it. It is the only digital content I am willing to pay for. That is because it has the chance to benefit other projects. And if I'll ever learn programming, potentially even some of my own.

  • The last games I purchased are Dave the Diver and BG3. Those games have something in common:

    1. No DLCs.
    2. No DRM.
    3. No external launchers.
    4. Internet connection is not required to play.
    5. Those games are polished, not broken and activelly supported/maintained/updated.

    All other titles I simply pirate. Here are my reasons:

    1. Runs like trash on day 1.
    2. 60-80€ price for a buggy mess.
    3. Companies usually under-deliver of what's promised.
    4. Has DRM (hurts performance) or requires active internet connection (hello steam deck while I am on a plane) or has additional launcher bullshit.
    5. Ubisoft usually copy/paste games (assassins creed, far cry series). I don't want to pay 80€ for a game with a new map and new skins, while everything else is literally the same mess.
    6. Not sure if I'd like the game (for 60-80eur). Companies no longer release trials.

    Regarding this:

    1. Not sure if I'd like the game (for 60-80eur). Companies no longer release trials.

    Once upon a time, I pirated Subnautica. Played for 10 minutes and realized "fuck it" and I bought both games. Realised that this is going to be a loooong game for me. No regrets supporting the company - those became one of my favorite games of all time.

    For me, paying 20-60 eur (depending on a game) is fine and using Steam is more convenient, but in most cases - piracy is usually more convenient to me. :)

  • Intellectual property isn't real, it's a self-contradicting concept. Thus, it is impossible to steal it, just like it's impossible to poach a unicorn. If you had the magical ability to point to an object and clone it, that wouldn't be stealing either.

    I only pirate things from large corpos. I don't pirate stuff from indie developers or small artists. I usually buy some merch from them too so they get some extra money, I try hard to support the little folks.

    There are rare times where I feel that big time developers deserve my money, like No Man's Sky. Indie devs that made it huge, screwed their fans when the game dropped initially, but have redeemed themselves fully by being honest, transparent, and providing incredible value since their flop to their customers.

    I bought their game even though I don't really play it, just to show my support of a game Dev studio that truly cares about their players and product.

    TL;DR support the small-time folks, screw the corpos.

  • I don't think video games would be as big or as developed as a medium and hence as an industry without piracy. For every dollar "lost" because someone pirated instead of buying, there's probably a greater factor of money "gained" from people gaining and maintaining interest in the medium. Maybe even especially for smaller games, the number of people introduced to the idea that indie titles can be really good, who play something they wouldn't have if it meant foregoing a more reliable large title, and then go on to talk about it online, and maybe buy it themselves is a big factor in growing the audience for those games and the medium itself.

    I also don't believe in intellectual property as it stands today and believe in the end of capitalism and market economies as a necessary feature for human development, so hopefully the idea of piracy will be moot eventually.

    I hope to make commercial games and while that would seemingly put me in conflict with pirates, I'm convinced that my attitude won't change, for the reasons above.

  • The antifeature of DRM anyone? Wanting open source that you can keep running, up to date and secure, as long as you want?

  • All companies are built upon unfathomable amounts of stolen surplus labor value, yet people only cry about a crime when you steal from the robber barons

    Yo fucking ho, salty dogs

  • Yes, I mostly pirate anime and some live action. I was saddened by the closure of RARBG, I used to torrent from there daily. Nowadays I mostly use Nyaa and 1337x, Nyaa for anime and 1337x for live action and other animation. I pay for Spotify premium, YT Premium, and Amazon Prime. I use Steam to purchase video games.

    Piracy via torrenting is my preferred way for watching series or movies, I just want the mkv files, I don't care for the BD menus, UI, bloopers & extras, buffering, etc. I remember trying Netflix a few years back and noticed that some content wasn't available for offline viewing. I also don't have to worry about things like licenses expiring meaning the streaming service no longer has the right to have it in their catalog or the drm in Blu-ray discs.

    I think piracy exists in a gray area like "illicit" drugs among other things and labeling or moralizing it as either good or bad paints it with a broad brush traps and confines it to a dichotomy that we really should look beyond. Heck, even services like Crunchyroll and Napster(Rhapsody) started off as piracy sites before they legitimized. Piracy also has benefits like preserving content from being lost due to it being out of print or licensing issues that limit sale or access. Old games can be played again by using emulators and roms.

    Personally, I've become more technologically literate through piracy. I started off with apps like PopcornTime and sites like Kissanime, 9anime, and Putlocker. I used to exclusively stream or use direct downloads until I discovered torrenting. I used to use UTorrent until I discovered Fosshub and Qbitorrent. Most of content I've torrented I've yet to watch so I'm more of a data hoarder. I have multiple external hard drives filled with data. I don't thinking purchasing would've made me more likely to watch the content I've watched as I've purchased many physical books that I have yet to read.

    Imo the term piracy means the unauthorized tampering/modification, access, and distribution of a product or service. That also poses the question whether or not consumers actually own what they buy. Piracy fights back against anti-consumer practices such as DRM which has been around since 1983. Also I'd say that corpos have gone way overboard with their anti-piracy measures when they can prosecute and extradite individuals.

    I'll end with this video, "Why We Should Get Rid Of Intellectual Property.

  • yes. don't need to justify it. if there's a game I want to play but I'm not sure that it's worth the price, I'll pirate it. same goes for movies or books or whatever. I don't even know how normies watch movies these days, I've never had a Netflix account.

    have you ever noticed that you have felt that the value of a product has decreased just because you didn't pay for it, thus you are less interested to read it?

    Nope.

461 comments