this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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Whatever you need to tell yourself to sleep at night. It's definitely stealing. This is a piracy community. Don't feign moral superiority. They offer a product, you don't want to buy the product so you find it for free elsewhere. A digital file that you experience for a cost is no different than a book you buy from a store, regardless of the state of ownership after the fact. And regardless if it's a locally published author or a multi billion dollar studio, there's a cost of entry. Semantics is all you're arguing, not the legitimacy of piracy, when you share that copypasta.
"Theft" has a legal definition that at least in my jurisdiction is not met by downloading copyrighted materials. So, no, copying is not stealing.
Actually, even if you are an EU citizen, downloading copywritten material for free is very much considered theft. Ever read those FBI or Interpol statements at the beginning of films?
In many places, downloading is legal. It's the uploading that's illegal.