Pirate some things, pay for some things. It doesn’t have to be absolute.
Most of us are presumably adults who can afford to pay for things when they’re convenient. That’s what it’s about for me, convenience. If you’re not making it convenient for me to buy your thing fair and square, then I’m gonna pirate it.
In the case of small little indie bands, they often aren’t on torrent sites at all. Given the choice between Spotify and Bandcamp, I’m going to buy the album on Bandcamp 100% of the time. I can contribute to the artist more and usually end up with a vinyl copy on the process.
Pirating has always been a solution to poor ease of access to content. If I could pay a legitimate subscription for a site with the catalog of PTP or RED, I would do it in a heartbeat. It will never happen though.
Some people are about piracy, others are about ownership and fighting back against neo digital feudalism
People generally will fairly buy content when it’s available and fairly priced if they want to support the creators. There’s a huge difference between wanting to help your favorite content producer VS companies that fart out mult-hundred dollar box sets of old content
Isn’t it generally pointing out what was actually worth paying for?
I’ve gone back after I’ve already pirated something and bought a legal copy if I thought it was worth it or if it’s in some sort of Humble Bundle deal that benefits charity and gets me a legal copy at the same time. Sometimes I’ll even pirate things I already bought & paid for because I want a backup copy (in the case of books or tabletop games).
I pirate a lot of books since I love to read, if I particularly liked a book or an author then I donate the cost of the books if the author has that option (most do)
My best friend does this with games. He doesn’t keep the pirated copy of games he doesn’t like. Just plays to see and then deleted it if he doesn’t want it. Buys it if he does. Back when we grew up they had demos for this purpose. But not anymore unless you happen to sign up for an alpha or beta program. Most big studios don’t do it.
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.
Well said!
Pirating gives me the option not to support shit corporations that fuck over consumers with no business ethics. I can pirate the content I choose and pay for it when I want to support creators.
Historically, pirating and underground markets for good and services begin to proliferate in a society as a sign that their economic system is failing. IMHO, unbridled capitalism and corporate shitification in the US is turning the Internet into a hellscape with 5 companies basically controlling the entire Internet with so much lobbying muscle behind them they remain untouchable through what remains of the democratic system.
I do my best to pay for things from creators who are making a living from it, and I do my best to NOT pay for things that line a multi-billion dollar company’s pocketbook.
Disney won’t pay their writers, actors, etc anything close to what they are really worth – so I pay what I can to people who don’t even manage to make THAT much. I pay for indie games, I pay for things that have proven their value (Warframe…totally free to play. They made $300 off of me after me playing for 2 YEARS without having to spend a dime, because I was appreciative of a game so well made and that made me happy for that long)
And these days, it’s not even worth the hassle of pirating games – too many chances for an executable to bite you in the ass and I’ve gotten to lazy to set up sandboxes/VMs, etc in order to limit their damage - so in most instances I only pirate movies/anime these days.
I’m a bit astonished how often I see this kind of thread, even here. It’s like when people complain about FOSS apps charging subscriptions or standalone fees. How many times does it have to be pointed out that piracy as an activity does not define piracy as a movement or a collective?
I’m certain this simplistic “piracy = not paying for stuff” take can only come from a kind of ignorant individualism, one that lacks any structural analysis of why, when, and for what content people turn to piracy (and why, when, etc, they stop).
piracy = not paying for stuff - in many countries around the world, that’s more like a cultural thing. I know because I’ve in both sides. I come from a 3rd world country but now live in Europe.
There’s a general sense of you should try to ethically pirate. Like no one cares if you shoplift from Walmart, but you’re a dick doing it to the local mom and pop grocery store who’s barely getting by.
On a more selfish level, paying for the things you enjoy shows whoever made it they’ll get money for it. Simple as that. If you really enjoy something stealing it isn’t going to convince them to make more. There’s been more than once where a game or show got pirated more than bought legally and it’s killed any future projects for it.
I’m pretty sure ethical pirating is mostly just justifying it to oneself.
That said, these corporations regularly steal from their customers and employees in many ways they can and cannot see. In that respect, pirating is more of a way to fight back.
Stealing is not ethical, but these profiteers do much worse on a daily basis, including stealing from those who created their profit engines. See Bill Willingham’s recent release of Fables to the public domain for a common example.
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I would say there are levels to pirates. Not everyone here wants or needs to be a pirate 100% of the time. Sure, everyone could download all their music but why bother if you have a streaming service that you consider cheap and you prefer streaming over storage. Like anything, they’re levels to it.
just use NewPipe and you can stream and download privacy frendly and legal for free
This, I pay for most stuff. But I pirate stuff I’m not sure about
Cracking groups have always said they do it for the challenge and if u like the game you should go buy it. Crackers and warez ftp groups have never dissuaded anyone from paying for the stuff they crack and release.
Sometimes it’s just about ease of access. I’m happy to pay for games but it’s often harder to track down legal copies of retro or delisted games than it is to find a torrent.
And a number of the files you find on torrent sites were uploaded by someone who bought the content legally. Torrenting is just peer-to-peer file sharing, someone has to acquire the first copy somehow
At least for me it’s a matter of convenience. It’s not that I can’t afford Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc. It’s more a question of why would I try to remember when they come out of my account and who has what shows when TPB has it all in one spot?
