No, it’s not like stealing a physical item from a store.
“stealing” a digital copy of a movie, tv show or a game is like if the item you’re stealing from a store is infinitely copyable. Like the replicator from star trek…or that one episode of Sabrina the teenage witch with that box that can make a perfect copy of everything you put inside of it.
Of course I personally would never pirate anything, no matter how much streaming services increase their prices or how much they crack down on VPN usage to get around geo-restrictions, PIRACY IS BAD AND ONLY BAD PEOPLE DO IT.
I’ve never pirated anything in my whole life!
There are people who understand what I’m saying…but apparently most people don’t get it.
Of course that means I still would never pirate anything. That would be horrible to “steal” a copy of a movie or a TV show
People try to boil these things down to incredibly simplistic rules in an effort to justify what they’ve already decided they’re going to do.
I am pro piracy, as I imagine virtually everyone on this community is. But I also think people get way too reductionist because that is easier than engaging with the nuances of what it means to “steal” or “pirate” or when we are or aren’t hurting a creator.
I think the pros vastly outweigh the cons, the “victims” are few and far between due to it being so rare/situational as to make it ok to functionally treat it like there are none, and I also think all the people arguing they are “doing media preservation” who don’t even know what a proper 3-2-1 backup is are full of shit lol. I also think people need to accept the fact they just want free shit sometimes and trying to dress up their motivations/sense of entitlement to free media with high minded arguments about sticking it to corporations or whatever is disingenuous - just own the decision!
I use my server because it is convenient and because I don’t want my kids being visually assaulted and manipulated every time they turn on a tv. I used to watch one of them visibly become panicked when all the tiles of a streaming service would pop up in front of him, it was just so overwhelming. I went a solid seven or eight years without the high seas because there was a time when streaming services were reasonably priced, convenient, and not dominated by ads. Now that that is no longer the case, I have gone back to my server. Simple as that.
I don’t mind paying for a service, I don’t even mind the occasional advertisement in my life. But what we have right now is absolutely ridiculous and easily justifies so many reasons for pirating.
All of this is to say you’re not gonna find people here who disagree with your decision to pirate. But you’re also not going to find some airtight philosophical argument that works 100% of the time. You have to consider the ethical implications of your actions in your day-to-day life, there are no simple rules to avoid that.
good comment
I do mind any and all advertising, I want zero advertising in my life. Except the ads from Apeldoorn insurers, those are the best.
Having said that, I don’t mind paying but then I want to pay and be able to see everything. The problem now is that in a world where all companies consolidao into one per market, on the media provide lr side, very conveniently, everything is fracturing into dozens of provii, each with their exclusive content. Totally not conspiratorial, just a convenient coincidence that makes then a boatload of extra money.
Fuck. That. Shit.
I want one provider with everything or aaaarr going to have to go to alternative sources
I don’t need one provider with everything, in fact that would lead to a terrible media environment. But I do think your price should be appropriate for the quality of your catalog, and as the catalogs get worse they’re all increasing their prices.
Ideally I would want to see zero advertisements in my life but I am capable of compromise. If you want to throw ads because something is otherwise free, I don’t know man that’s fair play if you ask me. We live in a capitalist society, you have to keep the lights on somehow. But if I’m paying money I don’t want see a single ad anywhere.
It is always morally acceptable?
Morality is, literally, subjective. There is no universal answer to that question.
I personally consider anything being sold by a distributor to be fair game, no questions asked. If I pay for mainstream music, films or games, most of the time, zero of that money goes to the workers who created those artworks. It just makes rich owners richer, because they legally own rights. I would go as far as to say it’s morally wrong to pay for those things, it’s not neutral, it’s supporting a cycle of abuse at your own expense. So that’s my perspective on your ‘giant corporations’ question.
Digital copying isn’t stealing, unfortunately, because those giant companies deserve to have their hoard of capital expropriated.
But if not a lot of sales are made, they won’t work with the same people again and will play more safely, and we’ll get less diversity
But maybe the people who were working in big studio movies would shift to independent film making with lower budgets and more diversity.
Obviously it’s also not a good solution, but do we need the big studios to make yet another avengers or minions?
Piracy is a response to various kinds of market failure, inequality.
Worrying about “property” of any parasite is something that I never bother to do.
Giving money to your enemy is idiotic tho.
There is a class war out there and normies are too busy funding their oppressors
Giving money to your enemy is idiotic tho. There is a class war out there and normies are too busy funding their oppressors
Absolutely. At the end of the day, most of the moral ideals being thrown around are, at the end of the day, nice ideas.
Giant corporations exist to get more money and, history shows, media companies will happily brainwash us and buy oppressive politicians just to push their profits up. Furthermore, they serve as a megaphone for the ideas of the owner class, who are historically the core force behind fascism when society is in crisis.
Giving them your resources is fucking suicidal.
Stealing a physical item from a giant corporate store is also always morally acceptable.
Having power neurologically suppresses empathy. Therefor resources controlled by the powerful will on average be used more harmfully. Taking resources from the powerful reduces total harm done.
You will use a loaf of bread less harmfully than Walmart will use the profit from it.
Stealing a physical item from a giant corporate store is also always morally acceptable.
not really, it makes the store lock everything up behind plexiglass creating more friction for paying customers too.
Of course, theft wouldn’t happen nearly as much if no one was desperate the survive, but even then there’d still be entitled assholes that want even more.
not really, it makes the store lock everything up behind plexiglass creating more friction for paying customers too.
That’s not really harm in the way that hunger or poverty or lobbying against workers protections is harm. That’s more like a temporary inconvenience that doesn’t stop anyone getting what they need, right?
myth:
cablepiracy is wrong.fact:
cablecompanies are big, faceless corporations which makes it okay!No, it’s not like stealing a physical item from a store.
I’d argue stealing physical items from massive corporations is also morally acceptable. If you shoplift from a small mom & pop store, you’re actively hurting your community, however, if you shoplift from Wal-Mart, you’re actively hurting an entity which is hurting your community, therefore helping your community.
Stealing sustinence from societal cancer is practically an immune response.
Shoplifting from Walmart hurts my knees because the boss won’t believe that our onhand numbers are wrong and makes me check high and low before I can nil pick it 🥲
This isn’t an ethical argument against shoplifting btw, this is an ethical argument in favor of nuking Walmart
If you shoplift from a small mom & pop store, you’re actively hurting your community
Unless you’re part of a riot, then it’s okay.
Terrible bait. I’m disappointed.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. If buying isn’t owning, then pirating can’t be stealing.
perhaps the only ethical consumption under capitalism is that which denies capitalists their profit.
I mean…if the movie is good you should support it. Vote with your wallet.
I mean…if the movie is good you should support it
What is ‘it’? The movie is a published work, it can’t be financially supported. Who is being supported with the money you pay?
Vote with your wallet.
Unfortunately, consumer boycott (and conversely, support) usually isn’t an effective strategy at this scale you’re talking about. Unless you and all your friends are voting with a few thousand dollars, it’s hardly going to make a dent in the numbers.
If the movie is good, you should support it by making a donation to the strike fund of the unions that represent the artists that actually create the movies. You can support artists without supporting the amoral companies that produce these works.
So long as people are starving under the system while others have yachts, the system is unethical, and thus following its rules – insofar as they perpetuate this inequity – is unethical.
I pirate to save money =]
I do since it’s a better service
¿Por qué no los dos?
Given that no one makes a fuss about it when corporations do the stealing, I think so.
I would like to suggest an alternate perspective, that digital media be beholden to protocols not platforms.
In other words lets focus on the drivers of competition…most evidence suggests that piracy goes down in response to easily accessible and affordable market conditions.
most evidence suggests that piracy goes down in response to easily accessible and affordable market conditions.
The assholes know this too. We’re about due for another round of deshitifcation, just long enough to restore complacency.
If “buying” is not owning, then “piracy” is not stealing.
They promised they would go out of business if I pirated their content, and that was a lie.
And of course, they did go out of business. That’s why they need welfare from the government now.
You should never pirate anything, that would be bad.
There are people who understand what I’m saying, and then there’s the idiots that downvoted me on some of the comments I posted
If they keep raising my food subscription I’m gonna start pirating from supermarkets too
