When you purchase digital goods you’re downloading capitalism.
Ye it’s wild. They also say they only pirate X or Y or do it because of Z. Like are you a pirate or not bro? You’re either in or not. I pirate everything I possibly can. That goes for small indie companies up to the AAA guys, small film companies to box office. ALL OF IT. I always got downvoted for saying it too on a PIRACY sub! Shits wild.
Edit: Even on lemmy my point gets proven 🤣
I’ve been pirating software since 1985. Piracy was never about just stealing shit for the fuck of it, I mean you can do that if you want, but the point was that human culture and expression shouldn’t be something that is afforded only certain demographics and those who have money.
You may feel like those ideals are completely irrelevant to you, but that’s the type of hacker mentality that the people who actually crack software and share it online for people like you often hold.
I always got downvoted for saying it too on a PIRACY sub! Shits wild.
Is it? It sounds more like the people on the privacy subs had morals and knew their limits.
If you go to the bar and the bartender says “drinks are on the house!”, you’re still not going to go and order every single drink on the menu. You’re not going to go off and drink yourself under the table, just because you personally don’t have to pay for it. You understand that there’s an opportunity to have something for free and you respectfully take up the offer and enjoy yourself.
Yes, video game practices are often downright toxic: Paying DLC for content that’s already on your PC/ Disk. Unfinished games, loot boxes, low quality remasters, buggy releases - I get it. I’m not going to spend $70 of my hard earned money on some crap and have it be half the product I was promised, or have DRM that prevents me from playing the game further into the future.
But what about great indie titles like Baldurs Gate 3? Where’s the justification there? It’s some honest Devs who put everything into an amazing product. Why not spend the money you’ve saved up on other piracies on a well-deserved title?
Some smaller indie titles need every sale. It literally pays for their livelihood. Why pirate their work too?
There’s honour among thieves. There’s a code to not screw over the people who are making games for the love of it. If you don’t care about any of that, fine. But don’t go around bragging about it like it’s your God-given right to steal.
Stealing everything from everyone isn’t something you should be proud of. We all can’t afford a lot of things atm, and that’s understandable. But there are people out there trying to afford stuff by selling those very same games. Have a bit of respect for the game.
Ah forgot about these guys also with their long wall of text to try and make me feel bad. Look i pirate to pirate I don’t care about morals or limits. If i can get it for free I’m going to do it. If a bartender says drinks are on the house i will 100% abuse it to my fullest extent. Baldurs gate 3 got pirated by me without a 2nd thought. I’m a full blooded pirate not one sob story is going to stop me.
Here’s a small wall of text:
You’re on a discussion board yet openly hate discussion.
You’re stupid and blocked.
That depends totally on the reason you pirate stuff. What are your motivations behind pirating? There are probably a ton of different reasons people do it. I often see people bragging about it so I guess fragile masculinity is a main factor in pirating as well. Or like another commenter said, it could be to experience freedom.
To me, it seems like a political act to pirate stuff from large corporations but pay money for indie media and small creators. Just like I would shoplift in large supermarket chains while I would never shoplift in a small family-run store.
Yeah all the ethics behind it are arbitrary.
Unless someone wants to grandstand themselves for internet points it’s pointless. A majority of people know to buy something if they like it and it’s not going to change the mind of people who weren’t going to buy it from the beginning.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I don’t pirate because I’m opposed to paying for things. I pirate stuff because I don’t want to support scumbag corporations that don’t give a shit about me. In fact, I buy most of the media and games I consume, in order to support the devs behind it.
And that’s not a “new piracy gen”, that’s how piracy has always been for most people. You’re the odd one out here.
Yea, I’ll pay for things. The problem is, what I want (DRM free media I can use on anything that will open them) is not generally for sale.
