No, it’s not like stealing a physical item from a store.

“stealing” a digital copy of a movie, tv show or a game is like if the item you’re stealing from a store is infinitely copyable. Like the replicator from star trek…or that one episode of Sabrina the teenage witch with that box that can make a perfect copy of everything you put inside of it.

Of course I personally would never pirate anything, no matter how much streaming services increase their prices or how much they crack down on VPN usage to get around geo-restrictions, PIRACY IS BAD AND ONLY BAD PEOPLE DO IT.

I’ve never pirated anything in my whole life!

  • FPSXpert@discuss.onlineEnglish
    0·
    16 hours ago

    Honestly if it’s a big setup like Spotify or Netflix or etc, “royalties” don’t mean shit to the production team / artists / whoever. Unless they’re Mariah Carey levels of replayed every year everywhere to the tune of sitting on millions in checks yearly, they aren’t going to get shit. Personally I’d rather support them in other ways such as buying merchandise, going to live shows etc but that’s just me.

    Remember though this is in minecraft, don’t pirate irl because that is very bad and you will personally prevent executives at warn-a-brother from buying another learjet. Remember: “pirating is bad and you should feel bad” 😂

  • LandedGentry@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    21 hours ago

    People try to boil these things down to incredibly simplistic rules in an effort to justify what they’ve already decided they’re going to do.

    I am pro piracy, as I imagine virtually everyone on this community is. But I also think people get way too reductionist because that is easier than engaging with the nuances of what it means to “steal” or “pirate” or when we are or aren’t hurting a creator.

    I think the pros vastly outweigh the cons, the “victims” are few and far between due to it being so rare/situational as to make it ok to functionally treat it like there are none, and I also think all the people arguing they are “doing media preservation” who don’t even know what a proper 3-2-1 backup is are full of shit lol. I also think people need to accept the fact they just want free shit sometimes and trying to dress up their motivations/sense of entitlement to free media with high minded arguments about sticking it to corporations or whatever is disingenuous - just own the decision!

    I use my server because it is convenient and because I don’t want my kids being visually assaulted and manipulated every time they turn on a tv. I used to watch my son visibly become panicked when all the tiles of a streaming service would pop up in front of him, it was just so overwhelming. I went a solid seven or eight years without the high seas because there was a time when streaming services were reasonably priced, convenient, and not dominated by ads. Now that that is no longer the case, I have gone back to my server. Simple as that.

    I don’t mind paying for a service, I don’t even mind the occasional advertisement in my life. But what we have right now is absolutely ridiculous and easily justifies so many reasons for pirating.

    All of this is to say you’re not gonna find people here who disagree with your decision to pirate. But you’re also not going to find some airtight philosophical argument that works 100% of the time. You have to consider the ethical implications of your actions in your day-to-day life, there are no simple rules to avoid that.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      19 hours ago

      I do mind any and all advertising, I want zero advertising in my life. Except the ads from Apeldoorn insurers, those are the best.

      Having said that, I don’t mind paying but then I want to pay and be able to see everything. The problem now is that in a world where all companies consolidao into one per market, on the media provide lr side, very conveniently, everything is fracturing into dozens of provii, each with their exclusive content. Totally not conspiratorial, just a convenient coincidence that makes then a boatload of extra money.

      Fuck. That. Shit.

      I want one provider with everything or aaaarr going to have to go to alternative sources

      • LandedGentry@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        17 hours ago

        I don’t need one provider with everything, in fact that would lead to a terrible media environment. But I do think your price should be appropriate for the quality of your catalog, and as the catalogs get worse they’re all increasing their prices.

        Ideally I would want to see zero advertisements in my life but I am capable of compromise. If you want to throw ads because something is otherwise free, I don’t know man that’s fair play if you ask me. We live in a capitalist society, you have to keep the lights on somehow. But if I’m paying money I don’t want see a single ad anywhere.

  • Soulifix@kbin.melroy.org
    0·
    24 hours ago

    I don’t pirate for moral purposes. I pirate because:

    I do not have all of the money in the world to simply just spend luxuriously on anything I set my sights on.

    I care about having food, a place to stay I can call my own, and a vehicle I need to get to places.

    There were stretches in time in my life where I had been broke and too poor while many things have passed me by that I have pirated since.

    I find that some services or media just aren’t worth the asking price or the value of what’s there that’s offered, because it does not pique my interest that would make me want to subscribe.

    I live a finite lifespan, I do not have all of the time in the world until legal alternatives are available or for some things to be affordable when I know it is likely that they won’t be.

    It’s really that simple.

  • drascus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    1 day ago

    And yet you can borrow anything from the local library for free and its considered totally fine and not pirating.

  • Robust Mirror@aussie.zoneEnglish
    0·
    1 day ago

    I’m not going to say piracy is right or wrong.

    What I will say is if everyone had access to that replicator, and everyone replicated everything in the store and left, the store would close down, and the products would stop being made.

    Likewise, piracy is only viable because not everyone does it. If literally every person pirated the games or movies of any given company, that company would no longer be profitable and would close down.

    Piracy is getting something for free because other people pay for it.

  • squid@feddit.ukEnglish
    0·
    1 day ago

    Private property is theft piracy in all forms is morally exceptable. DMCA actively harms progress, and this isn’t some techbro take as I disagree with AI.

    • viking@infosec.pubEnglish
      0·
      1 day ago

      I’d make a point saying that there’s a personal moral and a broader societal understanding of morality, and they don’t always align.

    • Mr. Zeus@feddit.orgOPEnglish
      0·
      1 day ago

      And of course, they did go out of business. That’s why they need welfare from the government now.

      You should never pirate anything, that would be bad.

      There are people who understand what I’m saying, and then there’s the idiots that downvoted me on some of the comments I posted

  • ctkatz@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    1 day ago

    my view on it lies in two seperate buckets:

    1. if the thing being pirated is vastly overpriced for its function i don’t see it as immoral
    2. if the thing being pirated is no longer available or was never made available for private ownership, ie only able to be streamed and only available on said service so long as the host streamer still has rights to do so, it isn’t immoral.

    and just to be clear, i don’t see piracy as inherently evil or anticapitalistic. there have been several books and apps that i pirated that i liked and converted to an actual buyer to get more books in the series or get updates to the program.

  • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    1 day ago

    I mean, the replicator is making food out of SOMETHING. I’m guessing it’s some kind of waste produce from the engine room. It needs matter to operate. It can’t create ex-nihilo.

    • _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      1 day ago

      The replicator from Star Trek makes matter out of pure energy, not out of other matter. It can make almost anything out of matter, so long as it has the molecular pattern on file, and the ship has enough energy available to power the replicators. That energy comes primarily from energy storage dedicated to replicator production, but in emergencies where a massive amount of matter need fabricated, additional power can be provided by the warp core.

      • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        0·
        1 day ago

        So they’re using several hiroshima’s or nagasaki’s worth of nuclear bomb’s energy to produce a cup of Earl Gray, hot? Seems like using garbage or human waste would save a lot of energy?

        Maybe I’m misunderstanding the power required to produce a small amount of matter?

        While we’re at it, is a transporter actually transporting me? Or is it technically really replicating me?

        Because what I assumed was happening was they essentially had a transporter like device that would take some matter (say a big pile of human dung) transport it (i.e, convert it into the energy the transporter uses run it through a pattern buffer that’s stored in the transporter for say, Earl Gray hot) and beam it into the Captain’s quarters as Earl Gray hot instead of poop.

        • ___@lemm.eeEnglish
          0·
          1 day ago

          A cup of tea is around 500megatons if you convert all the matter into energy. We’re talking a few thousand Hiroshimas.

          • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            0·
            19 hours ago

            I think conversion from matter to energy and back again seems extreme. Maybe it’s just matter to matter but something quantum level.