this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
1162 points (94.5% liked)
Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
55110 readers
586 users here now
⚓ Dedicated to the discussion of digital piracy, including ethical problems and legal advancements.
Rules • Full Version
1. Posts must be related to the discussion of digital piracy
2. Don't request invites, trade, sell, or self-promote
3. Don't request or link to specific pirated titles, including DMs
4. Don't submit low-quality posts, be entitled, or harass others
Loot, Pillage, & Plunder
📜 c/Piracy Wiki (Community Edition):
💰 Please help cover server costs.
Ko-fi | Liberapay |
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
That's not been my experience. I always see people advocating for paying for games/media when it comes from indie devs etc. And there is a difference between piracy and outright theft of artwork which is then profited from, I.e. a company steals small artists work and puts it on t-shirts - very few "pro-piracy" people, if any at all, are advocating for that.
At the end of the day, pirates do it because they either have very little money or they're smart and want to retain the money they have. Then there are anti-copyright people, which is cool too.
Then there are the people who don't really know what's going on but claim some moral standing surrounding piracy. I can actually feel them coming, fuck...
 Well that has often been my experience, but I’m not going to pretend that my experience as everyone is.
For instance, I see a lot of really ridiculous arguments claiming it’s for archiving.” First of all, they do not follow archival procedures. Second, they are not working with any known archiving organizations. Thirdly, they are not using what they have “archived” in any manner that could be considered “for the public good.“ Unless you want to count seeding it back out, but that argument can become pretty recursive pretty quickly. 
It also just so happens they are archiving mostly - if not entirely - the games they want to play, the shows they want to watch, and the movies they want to watch. It’s awfully curious how much the venn diagram of “archiving for the public good” and “what I want to enjoy” resembles a circle lol.
My point being, there are arguments in favor of piracy, most of which i agree with. But I see a lot of disingenuous ones from people who are clearly just doing it because they feel entitled to the media. I would rather they were just honest about their intentions instead of feeding me nonsense talking points that even they don’t believe. Otherwise it just reeks of justifying their actions (poorly) instead of just saying “I have nothing to justify.”
You have a point, but it's kind of like people who resist all gun control due to the second amendment despite the shootings going on
Yeah, if life continues on as-is, the argument has little merit. On the other hand, in the case of the second amendment, we have fascists making a credible move for control.
In the case of archiving DRM content, if we have a cataclysm (which seems increasingly likely), then having drm-free, ideally unencrypted, content sitting on random hard drives might end up making an enormous difference in a lot of lives
Or even without a cataclysm, just general enshittification might end up destroying the gaming and media industries - passed around old games might be the seed for the next generation of tech-heads. I started my path by jailbreaking my PSP so I could use custom web browsers and homebrew - spreading these after the Internet is locked down by efforts like kosa and WEI (and whatever comes next) might be the spark that motivates the next generation
Well in that case I agree with you.
People should pirate what they want without making excuses.
Bingo. Own the act, then explain it to folks without being defensive or straight up lying to yourself.