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Pluralistic: “If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing” (pluralistic.net)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I know, I know, I figured someone was going to bring this up, and personally that's part of the reason I justify my own piracy (cause I'm broke and movie studios aren't), but two things:

The cost of creating, copying, and distributing a good isn't strictly relevant to the transaction of said good. If the original owner doesn't want me to have access to a good without paying for it, and I take it anyway, that's stealing. The labor and capital required to create, copy, and distribute that good isn't relevant to that transaction, only my moral justification for stealing it anyway. Which is fine, imo, just be honest with yourself. You're stealing, and it's justified. Stick it to the man
Assuming that it is relevant, making digital media isn't free. I can get away with piracy only because there's enough people paying for the media to make it worth it for the studio. At least one other commenter pointed this out, but if everyone pirated, who would be making movies and video games? So to keep the system going, imo, only pirate if you weren't going to buy it anyway - piracy or nothin.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

At least one other commenter pointed this out, but if everyone pirated, who would be making movies and video games? So to keep the system going, imo, only pirate if you weren’t going to buy it anyway - piracy or nothin.

You're missing another option... And one that most people seem to continue to purposefully forget. When Netflix first started... It was a good product at a worthwhile price. Lots of people gave up pirating. Music was the same thing with Spotify and such services. Piracy is only getting worse again because the companies that "produce" the content can't keep their heads out of their asses and the services that cut back on piracy are now worse than what we left originally. As someone who had purchased these services for YEARS... There's nothing but greed on their end... They can't be mad when people respond with their own form of greed, they made the first move here. They could have continued making money from people who otherwise wouldn't have paid. They chose this path to some extent.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I think my last sentence includes your "missing option", actually. Take streaming for example, I'm not paying for 6 different streaming services. I can't, I won't, and I'm not going to juggle them every couple months either. So I pirate. Even if for some reason I couldn't pirate their stuff, I just wouldn't watch it. Either way, they don't get my money.