Well, my friend, he’s kinda poor he can’t afford some books and some streaming services, so he pirates. He pirate books, audiobook and videos and other stuff. Sometimes he buys books he likes a lot out of loyalty to the author (yeah, I don’t understand it either), he likes to read physical books, but yeah, if he hates the author or just wants to skim through it, he will download the book.

He usually doesn’t like to pirate from small companies or professors who are trying to make a living by selling books, but from millionaires & plenty of mega corps which already have loads of money, he feels like it’s the right move to pirate

Also, have you ever noticed that you have felt that the value of a product has decreased just because you didn’t pay for it, thus you are less interested to read it? i.e., had you paid for the book, you would have more likely read that book.

He says he will buy stuff when his time is more valuable than money, let’s all hope that day is soon.

What are your piracy habits?

  •  drcouzelis   ( @drcouzelis@lemmy.zip ) 
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    10 months ago

    I don’t have an answer to your exact question but I want to emphasize…

    NOTHING in the history of humankind has ever existed like computer data. A 100% identical copy of videos, pictures, and music can be made almost instantly at what is essentially zero cost to the original holder of the data. Any comparison to “stealing” or to a physical object (a car lol) just falls flat because the situation is just so different.

    Practically speaking, the world we live in, with computers everywhere, cheap storage, and easy fast internet access for so much of the world, has only been around for about two decades, maybe three. NOTHING like this has ever existed before, and businesses, culture, and laws have been very slow to catch up.

    I’m not saying pirating is right or wrong, just that the whole idea is still so new that society hasn’t caught up to it yet.

    • NOTHING in the history of humankind has ever existed like computer data. A 100% identical copy of videos, pictures, and music can be made almost instantly at what is essentially zero cost to the original holder of the data. Any comparison to “stealing” or to a physical object (a car lol) just falls flat because the situation is just so different.

      YES!

      Nice comment, tq!

  •  Stuka   ( @Stuka@lemmy.ml ) 
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    10 months ago

    Give me a reasonably priced, accessible way to enjoy the content and I will happily pay for it.

    Streaming has become untenable and now it’s neither affordable nor convenient to watch what I want to watch. And with how frequently shows and movies bounce around platforms, who knows if the show I want to watch this weekend will be still available on one if the many platforms I’ve been paying for.

    I’m just done with it.

      • Oh let’s be real here, this is what capitalism does. It chooses the worst possible option for entertainment because it’s what makes the most money. What makes the most money is not making you happy, but getting you to stay subscribed.

        Let me tell you the real secret. You know what it costs to rent a movie online? And stream it? And then never watch it again? Yeah now justify that against streaming services.

        I’ll tell you right now, go get Plex. If you don’t already use a media server, start. Because chances are that you don’t actually watch 90% of what’s on those services. So that $15 a month for content you don’t own could easily be $20 a month on content that you do actually own. Not to mention there’s no ads involved and you can stream as many devices as you want from anywhere. Get friends to pitch in and it’s even better.

        The ONLY argument for this is convenience of all the shows at your fingertips. Except now that’s not the case and they’re on different services, screw it, either pirate the media or buy it used on disc.

  • All culture belongs to everyone, therefore should be accessible to everyone.

    The sale of goods only concerns those who can and want to afford it.

    Sharing is not theft.

    Pirates are cool.

  • I cannot confirm, nor deny.

    But, I will say, once upon a time, before the days of netflix, if you wanted to watch things, you needed to spend a fuckload of money, to watch it on cable, with commercials every 10 minutes… or, you drove to a blockbuster. So, you either did that, or you obtained the movie/tv/etc, via a torrent.

    Then, netflix came along, gave you a ton of content, at a reasonable price. And- then, there wasn’t really much of an advantage to obtaining media via other alternative means. So, netflix took over by storm, and piracy went way down.

    Then, everyone wanted a piece of the action. So, then Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, HBO+, ESPN+, (And insert 50 other network-specific streaming services) jumped into the fray. Then, they all made exclusive streaming contracts. So, if you watch a handful of things, you would need a handful of streaming service subscriptions.

    And- again, the alternative option of piracy, became the better option, as you can watch whatever the f- you want, WHENever you want, without having to pay for 50 different subscriptions every month, just to watch a TV series, which they decide to cancel after the 2nd season.

    Do you justify?

    If the fucking scumbags didn’t get greedy in the first place, we wouldn’t be in this situation. But, no, everyone wanted an extremely generous piece of the pie, and now everything has went to shit again. Fuck those guys. Isn’t like the actual actors/writers staring in movies gets any of the money anyways.

    • Couldn’t agree more.

      The streamers had it good - they saved us from the tyranny of expensive cable packages, just to access those few things we wanted to watch. Then they shit the bed in the exact. Same. Way.

      And now we’re in this place again.

    • It’s also just such a pain to try to find things between a zillion different services.

      With Stremio + Torrentio + a debrid service, it just works, it’s fast, and absolutely everything that isn’t obscure is just always available. (Well, aside from debrid service downtime for maintenance.)

      It’s also higher quality, too; Netflix (and others) compress the shit out of their streams.

  • I only pirate TVs/Movies. Streaming is in such a shitty state that I don’t want to figure out what service is on what, and I’m certainly not going to subscribe for just one thing to watch. I feel no remorse.

    • This, the difficulty of simply paying for the things you want. I used to pirate music back in the IRC/pre-Napster days, and then iTunes came out. “I can just click a button and the song is on my computer, high quality, no fuss?” That was the end of music pirating for me.

      I have Amazon Prime and I’ve tried Netflix in the past. The amount of time I spent sorting through their shit movies to find something worth watching was abysmal, not to mention no way to filter out the huge influx of low-budget non-English content.

      • Difficulty paying for the things speaks to me. I have musical tastes, esp. in bootleg remixes, such that there is no way to legally buy many of the tracks and CD length megamixes I like.

        I actually want to pay for these things but there’s not really a way to do that.

      •  wax   ( @wax@lemmy.wtf ) 
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        Trying to find something to watch on Netflix was exhausting. Basically looking up every show on the mobile for imdb rating / rotten score etc to see if its worthwhile. I don’t watch that much TV, so I’m not going to binge any crappy show or movie

  • I had to write a research report in university about whether or not piracy hurt or helped the recording industry.

    From the research, I found multiple studies that compared brain activity of shoplifters compared to those of pirates. The area of the brain that lit up when stealing physical objects did NOT light up for those who pirated.

    Digital piracy is not theft. No one is hurt except for unrealized revenue. But if someone pirates, was that even potential revenue to begin with?

    It was also found that piracy allowed for greater reach of content which statistically resulted in more people attending live concerts (think of piracy as free advertisement). Concert attendance led to increase in ticket and merchandise sales.

    So overall? Piracy is good. It is only bad if you ignore multiple factors and only focus on short term bottom lines. A net positive.

  • You know how writers get paid fuck all for the movies they write? You know how animators are paid criminally low wages for the anime they produce? At the end of the day for most media it’s the companies that get all the money, not the artists. Therefore, fuck them, I am pirating your content not contributing to your profit margins.

  • My time is more valuable than money, but I still pirate. To me it’s not about money but principles.
    If I pay for something and still can’t “own” it, I pirate.
    If a generous portion of the money I pay isn’t going to the rightful individuals but to our corporate overlords, I pirate.
    If my internet freedom is threatened, I pirate.

    If someone pirates due to lack of money and one day they have enough, I suggest keep pirating and donate to FOSS and pay to individual creators.

  • I can afford to buy or subscribe to services but at this point streaming is just more annoying than pirating. With pirating I can use my favorite player (mpv), maximize video quality (high quality blu-ray rips), watch offline, no bugs or buffering, instant seeking et.c. As for games I might pirate a game before buying it but usually I just buy it since it’s convenient (unless it has intrusive DRM).

    • Even for 1080p media, playing locally with advanced denoising and upscaling to 4k is so nice, and of course just not having to deal with all the streaming caveats.

      For games pirating it for performance testing is useful before you know you’ll fully commit to it, although Steam let’s you play for up to 2 hours and still get a refund, a lot of games will require you to play more of it to make that decision (looking at you, Starfield… I’m glad I didn’t buy that one).

      • I agree with holding off on Starfield. Bethesda games are usually instant buys for me but this time I’ll probably wait years before buying it. My love for Bethesda games is all about exploration and for some reason they replaced handcrafted story-filled landscapes with procedural generated ones? Hopefully modders make some cool content that is worth exploring in the future :)

        • At the risk of going off topic a bit, I am very confident that there will be a plethora of new areas with loads of content coming from modders as soon as the Creation Kit drops. With Skyrim, adding new areas was often slightly awkward because you had to make it a dungeon that would then maybe lead to a bigger, open area simply because the Skyrim “overworld” was relatively crowded already and it would easily risk breaking other mods that added stuff on the main area. But in Starfield there is so much empty space on the three dimensional galaxy map that it’s virtually impossible that two distinct modders would choose the same exact spot for their custom solar system.

    • There’s even some things you can do with a self-hosted media server that you just can’t easily do with sreaaming services. For example, Jellyfin has a group sync feature where multiple users can join a group and when someone plays something, it plays for everyone. It works great for watching shows with friends remotely. I think Amazon Prime video has something like this but none of the others IIRC.

  • No, I don’t, because I can afford stuff and pirating in this situation would be just pure stealing which I believe is morally wrong. Yes, being a billionaire is usually morally wrong too but I don’t think it just cancels out.

    Justifying piracy by saying capitalism is bad sounds like a hypocrisy to me. You want to use something that exists thanks to capitalism without participating in it. You want to eat your cake and have it too.

    Now, the case is different for people that can’t afford stuff, especially when they genuinely need it (but I don’t draw the line at entertainment, after all people NEED entertainment too). In that case, please pirate away. Everyone deserves a decent life. In general, I largely agree with OP’s friend.

    • You want to use something that exists thanks to capitalism without participating in it. You want to eat your cake and have it too.

      These things don’t exist because of capitalism. They exist in capitalism. They were created by people with talent, skill and artistic vision, and the passion to pull it off. They would be creating in any system. All capitalism did was add people above the creators to own their work and siphon the majority of profit.

      • That might be true in many cases but do you actually believe that things requiring immense investments and years of work like AAA games and high budget blockbuster movies would be created in any system?

        • Of course they could. Why not? You’re still thinking in terms of capitalism, which is the problem. Only in a capitalist system do these things require large amounts of investment.

          Films are created by teams of people. Under capitalism, they need to be paid, and handsomely, because they need money to survive. What about a system that already provides basic needs? One that directly invests in its community? One that doesn’t even need money, because it becomes redundant once goods are provided freely?

          In such a system, people work on what they want, when they want, and provide for society because it’s their true desire. Such a system not only would still create art, it would create vastly more art, because literally anyone could make it.

          • In such a system, people work on what they want, when they want, and provide for society because it’s their true desire.

            I find it kinda hard to believe that people would be able to achieve the level of organization and would be willing to put in the effort required just by doing what they want when they want, without any outside incentive. I’m not talking about a painting or a book, that’s why I specifically mentioned things requiring large investments. And by investment I didn’t mean just money but time and effort in general.

            • I find it kinda hard to believe that people would be able to achieve the level of organization and would be willing to put in the effort required just by doing what they want when they want, without any outside incentive.

              Why?

              •  sajran   ( @sajran@lemmy.ml ) 
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                10 months ago

                I just don’t think the majority of people are motivated enough. I have met many people who have no hobbies and no ambitions and just don’t want to do anything productive. They would like to spend their entire lives playing video games or partying or something similar.

                And this is just about the lack of motivation, but what about malicious actors? People who would sabotage other’s efforts or try to profit in an unfair way? How would you ensure this won’t happen?

                What about shitty and unpleasant but necessary jobs no one wants to do?

                The idea that once you remove the money everyone will suddenly feel the desire to serve the society is bonkers. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t love capitalism. I want to believe the world like that is possible, I really do, but I just can’t see it working. I live in a society where I have to use a 3 kg bike lock in order not to lose my bike and even then I have to detach the $10 light and take it with me because otherwise it won’t be there when I come back. I have zero trust and belief that such society can magically self organize and work together towards a common happiness.

                •  irmoz   ( @irmoz@reddthat.com ) 
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                  I just don’t think the majority of people are motivated enough. I have met many people who have no hobbies and no ambitions and just don’t want to do anything productive. They would like to spend their entire lives playing video games or partying or something similar.

                  Call this cope if you want, but I think that’s largely down to their material conditions. For most people, options really aren’t that great for truly succeeding, or even living a decent life. Not that this makes their decision logical, but it does make it understandable. A society that sees to their basic needs and has completely open career opportunities presents so much more choice. Imagine the difference in mentality it would engender if you never grew up needing to worry about your next meal. If you never saw any indication that your parents were struggling, or anyone else’s. If everyone seemed to be doing what they wanted in their lives. You would grow up with a mentality that you could learn anything you wanted, and the knowledge that you could actually do it, and society would support you in your ambition. And, even if you had no genuine long-term ambition or hobbies - people just get bored. Imagine if, when you got bored, you had the option to help run a coffee shop, or to help someone harvest their farm, without needing to take it on as a full-time job, but just for something to do that afternoon?

                  Compare that to how people are socialised today - the vast majority of people will grow up in a family that is divided in some way or other, and in the majority of cases, financial reasons can be easily discerned. One of the partners perhaps isn’t contributing to the finances, or is spending frivolously. One perhaps won’t get a job even though a single income is not covering expenses. Or both are working and even that isn’t enough, leading to extremes of stress. Or maybe one has a much better paying job than the other, leading to resentment due to dependence. Growing up with such a family would show a child that working is a world of stress, and that money controls everything. These formative years can entirely shape a person’s worldview for life. And entering the competitive world of schooling, then later entering the working world itself, will only confirm those feelings, because everything in our lives is constant competition, constant grind and pressure to always be trying to get the most value out of everything. That can just wear a person down to the point that doing anything seems like too much effort and too much time, when so little time is available.

                  And this is just about the lack of motivation, but what about malicious actors? People who would sabotage other’s efforts or try to profit in an unfair way? How would you ensure this won’t happen?

                  No one can ever ensure people won’t act maliciously. Even in the perhaps utopian world I described, people can still simply be rotten, or be made rotten in some way due to other rotten people. What we can do is, between us, try to create the type of world thus described. The truly malevolent may not be stamped out, but they can be vastly reduced (in the cases where they were made to be so because of society failing them), and the people who were driven to desperation due to need (the vast majority of what we could call ‘crime’) would no longer exist as a category.

                  What about shitty and unpleasant but necessary jobs no one wants to do?

                  That is a loaded question. There truly is no job that “no one wants to do”. For one thing, volunteer work, open source projects, and internet moderation proves that people will work for free. And people who, even under capitalism, perform demanding, demeaning, disgusting and thankless jobs who nonetheless sincerely love their jobs (though usually not the conditions or the pay), proves that people can find joy in any kind of work.

                  The idea that once you remove the money everyone will suddenly feel the desire to serve the society is bonkers.

                  Why do you say that? People worked and had functioning societies loooong before money was invented. Before property was invented. There’s evidence for thriving, culturally advanced, diverse, egalitarian societies throughout prehistory, with no state or hierarchy. The Indus Valley civilisation is one example. Attempts to create such egalitarian societies in the modern era have failed not because it isn’t possible, but because outside forces - most often the US, particularly the CIA - have either fully invaded or sabotaged the project covertly. Revolutionary Catalonia would have thrived if it weren’t for Franco’s Fascist Spain. The Communards managed to establish working class rule in Paris until they were crushed by the French Army. Chile elected a socialist, Allende, and the CIA wasted absolutely no time invading to coup his ass and install a dictator. Check other South American countries for similar stories.

                  It doesn’t fail because it doesn’t work. It is sabotaged. Every single time.

                  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t love capitalism. I want to believe the world like that is possible, I really do, but I just can’t see it working.

                  I want you to consider this this worldview only exists because of the society we exist in.

                  I live in a society where I have to use a 3 kg bike lock in order not to lose my bike and even then I have to detach the $10 light and take it with me because otherwise it won’t be there when I come back.

                  Consider this: how much of a concern would that be if bikes were free?

                  I have zero trust and belief that such society can magically self organize and work together towards a common happiness.

                  Please afford me the common respect of not assuming I believe in magic, or, that I metaphorically believe this would happen as if by magic, easily, instantly, with zero effort involved. I have no illusions that this could happen without a complete revolution of society, with the working class revolting completely of their own accord, in unison and common effort, toward the goal of rebuilding society with themselves in control, and dethroning the elite, demolishing their structures and ravaging all they have built.

                  It will not be easy. It will not be pretty. There will be terror. There will perhaps be beheadings of billionaires in town squares. There may be invasions of mansions to burn them down and kidnap their occupants.

                  And there also may not be. Revolutions have happened that could be descibed in such a way. They also have happened more peacefully - with violence, of course, but not terror. Military tactics and organised citizenry simply demanding their rights en masse, with only the threat of their numbers being necessary. But more often, there is a mixture of such things.

                  So no, it will not happen magically. Even as metaphor, that is not what I imagine. Unless you consider the human spirit wishing for its true freedom to be a form of magic, and the co-operation of people truly wishing each other the best to be magic also, then in case, maybe so. But we have evidence enough that these things exist. And magic is only deserved as a description of things fantastical with no precedent or reasonable basis.

        • Absolutely.

          Give me 5 years without worrying about the money, and I’ll build a game bigger and fancier than any AAA title (assuming someone else will do the art and story)

          I’d build worlds just because I like to feel godlike - I’d write the rules to generate world after world just because that’s what I am, and without worrying about finances I’d hand it off to others to do what they love with it. Other people love writing engines or handcrafting experiences - I love building the tools

          I think you’re looking at it the wrong way – AAA stuff isn’t good because of a profit motive, it’s this bad because everyone is trying to minimize the work put in and maximize the profits. If everyone working on games collaborated on a few engines and shared work freely between each other, we’d have way better games

    • I also can afford stuff but sometimes stuff doesn’t allow itself to be bought. Tried buying some music in mp3 format from Amazon, they wouldn’t sell me digital music because I didn’t live in one of the handful of countries they sell to. So I just ordered the audio CD and ripped it. Now I have the physical disk as well which, I’m not going to lie, I like, but convenience went out the window. This was a new release.

      On a different occasion (older release), I couldn’t find the audio CD version but found a site that sold to me (not Amazon, but what do you know, it is possible to sell digital goods all over the world. Whoddathunkit?).

      And then I have some music I still cannot find neither digital nor disk except for some very rare vinyls which pop up once in a while. And I don’t have a set-up to rip vinyls, so what does one do about that? Piracy is also a service problem.