What's up with people on the piracy subreddit always talking about how they pay for stuff. your on a piracy community and they talk about purchasing digital goods? I don't get it. New piracy gen ?
What's up with people on the piracy subreddit always talking about how they pay for stuff. your on a piracy community and they talk about purchasing digital goods? I don't get it. New piracy gen ?
Pirate some things, pay for some things. It doesn't have to be absolute.
210Only a Sith deals in absolutes.
48
Because in the words of GabeN, piracy (in a 1st world country at least) is a service problem and not a pricing problem. Many things are worth paying for, especially when you are supporting smaller creators, artists and indie game devs. But when heavy-handed DRM's and corporate shovelware and services that actively remove content I pay for makes it a shit experience. I'm gonna just torrent that shit, fuck 'em
183But when heavy-handed DRM's and corporate shovelware and services that actively remove content I pay for makes it a shit experience. I'm gonna just torrent that shit
The annoying hurdles are what get me. I've cracked a lot of the games that I own because I hate forced updates, going through an additional client, or being asked to sign in for another service that I won't use.
59Amen
2
When I was younger I pirated because I didn't have any money to spare for digital media. Today I have a stable income and can afford all these things but I still pirate because it's just more convenient in many ways.
Whenever I consume something that I really like I 100% support the artist / developers mostly by buying this exact product and / or some merch or by going to their concerts (if it's music related)
To me piracy is just a way of freedom. Which includes to respect other people if they like or dislike spending money on certain things. In my eyes we should not split this community in such a way because this would kill the essence of freedom to make your own choices
83Most 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.
68In 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.
31
Some people are about piracy, others are about ownership and fighting back against neo digital feudalism
61People 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
54Isn't it generally pointing out what was actually worth paying for?
50
47Other people have made good points but this guy wins.
5Now that unlocks a memory, what was this show called (if it was a show)?
2
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.
44Yea, I'll pay for things. The problem is, what I want (DRM free media I can use on anything that will open them) is not generally for sale.
10Exactly. When pirating is more convenient than purchasing, I’ll pirate.
4
Well said!
2
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).
41I 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)
6My 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.
3
I ain't cheap, I just don't like my money going to billionaires who give us nothing in return. I pay for email, I don't pay to watch a Marvel film.
I don't think it's that hard.
39You.....pay for email???
-1Proton!
The fuck if I'm gonna let Google train an AI off my emails.
17Some people do. There are options (like Proton) that offer good services that respect their users and their privacy and I personally like to support that
14A lot of us pay for privacy focused email because we don’t want Google or MS steal our data
7Aye, as @forensic_potato said. And they have really good free options too, that are actually improved upon feature wise (only usage is limited)
Gonna pay once I can actually afford it.
5You have to pay to get a real domain
3
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.
38It's a convenience thing. Remember when Apple Music and Spotify used to be $5.99 a few years ago? It was really hard to justify pirating then, for example. Like I'd have to find what I was looking for, close a million pop ups to get the torrent, download it, then upload the files onto whatever device I was using. And I would have to do it over again for the car, and over again for my wife if she asked for it, etc.
Or I could just type it into a search bar, and bam. All for $5.99, and I didn't have to worry about storage? Sign me up.
The convenience of Spotify is still sort of worth the price, but it's getting pretty marginal. The other streaming services we use brought us the same level of convenience, but they are getting way too greedy and creating way too many of them. Netflix and the media streamers turned into Cable. Which is going to inevitably turn us all back to pirating as they start cracking down on password sharing and keep creating new services with bloated fees.
The dumb fuckers literally figured out how to defeat piracy. And then drove us back to piracy with their greed. So when they inevitably start crying about it again, tell them all to eat shit.
35Between power, hardware depreciation, Usenet/indexer fees and VPN I probably pay somewhere like €50/month to curate my own media collection.
I'd be happy to pay the same for a legal platform that has all the content I want in the same place, like Spotify for music (which I use and pay for).
Right now the piracy experience for movies/series is simply superior to the legal experience , so there is absolutely no incentive for me to switch things up.
5And digital games being the same price as the physical copy. I remember when they were trying to say the uptick in price was due to the box and stuff inside, then digital came along and it was the same price, proving they lied and are simply greedy. Even if it was only $10 less I could justify the ridiculous price. Games should cost more. A lot of work went into them. But not $70. That's over a days worth of work for those poor folk who make minimum wage.
4This, 100% this, especially that last paragraph.
2That and spotify quality is pretty horrendous for music
-1
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.
31There'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.
25I'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.
-7Ethics is, at its core, based around justifying things.
2
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).
25piracy = 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.
1
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.
24I 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.
22just use NewPipe and you can stream and download privacy frendly and legal for free
3This, I pay for most stuff. But I pirate stuff I’m not sure about
2
I don't mind paying for things when the value proposition is there. Just in entertainment, the prices get skewed way outside value.
21Here's a supporting example; my son wants to see Blue Beetle. I checked it out, and the rental is $20 - for a streamed "right to view" which means there is zero marginal cost for them to produce, track, or retrieve it. Even with recent inflation, you can get a restaurant meal for that.
15
Piracy isn't a "movement" it's a means to an end.
To consider it anything more that "get shit for free or delisted/abandoned" is cringe.
17It does feel like a lot of people trying to justify their piracy are just looking for excuses for something that they personally feel is wrong, but they want to do anyway… but I do think that free access to data and information is something that people can legitimately care about. Libraries are a good socially acceptable example of this (and they definitely fall under the “get shit for free” movement!), and it’s not entirely crazy or cringe for people to want more libraries in life and fewer walled gardens.
7Give me an opportunity to pay to access the content easily for a reasonable price. It’s all I ask.
I used to have a huge pirated music collection, and now I have no pirated music at all because it became convenient and reasonably priced to listen to the music I want the way I want to listen to it.
For quite awhile I had no pirated TV or Movies because the content I wanted to watch was available on Netflix and HBO Go. Now I have a lot of content pirated because I’m not going to pay $10-$25 monthly to pay for a streaming service for every show I want to watch. And another $10-$25 monthly for every show my kids want to watch.
To be clear, I am not claiming any moral high ground. That shit is out there for free and unless these companies can find a way back to reasonably-priced streaming I am going to continue taking it because I have a limited budget and TV/Movies are only worth a certain amount of money to me.
4Oh when it comes to digital preservation it's all good we need that as it's often the only way to access a ton of media.
Just don't tell me you're fighting capitalism cuz that computer and Internet connection says otherwise 😂 also if you're boycotting something like Ubisoft or Disney, like don't even pirate their stuff, what are you doing?
0
Ugh, self-righteous pirates are the fucking worst. My brother in Christ, you're pirating Assassins' Creed 14. Just fucking say you're stealing it. You don't need to sugar-coat it.
1Right? It's cool! I won't judge.
3
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
15At 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?
13Depends on what it is? I pirated music for years when I couldn't afford to buy albums. When I finally could afford to support the artists I liked by buying their stuff I did. It's part of the reason I find the move to streaming services so frustrating. I want to pay once for access to an album. Not 100 times.
12I pay for stuff when I have money to spare or when it's more convenient like with Factorio or Rimworld where updating mods is infinitely easier through official channels.
10There's a few DVDs I bought recently of movies that I couldn't find anywhere. 50/50 about uploading them to a torrent site. I want to but is there any way it could be traced back to me?
9If you worried about Tracking back to you , why not upload it to private torrent, or rip it and ask in forum in private torrent on how they can help you. Win win for all.
6Pretty safe. Just use a VPN, a new unique handle/email address if you're extra concerned, and don't post DVD screens with unique watermarks that identify you as the recipient.
There wouldn't be any GPS data like what's in photos to worry about.
1
Maybe astroturfing, but most likely just people trying to be morally superior to one another.
8Yeah all the ethics behind it are arbitrary.
Unless someone wants to grandstand themselves for internet points it's pointless. A majority of people know to buy something if they like it and it's not going to change the mind of people who weren't going to buy it from the beginning.
2
if the author of a book is still alive and not an absolute tool I'll pay for it. I'll absolutely crack it, but I'll pay for it. and I pay for my VPN
8I would have never bought skyrim if I didn't pirate it first. Studios should pay marketing commision for pirates
6Well, I'm browsing all, so I see the posts here from time to time. And generally speaking, I pay for games and books and pirate everything else, so if the discussion is about games, I'm gonna mention I buy them (if relevant, of course, I'm not going around telling people I actually buy games).
6Sometimes if I pirate a game and the game was actually pretty good, I will go ahead and buy the game after. I do it less often now that we have steam. As an example I pirated ghost trick years ago as it was only for the ds and I didn't want to buy a ds. Later the game became available on steam so I bought it.
5when amazon books could be de-drmed and "my" torrent site showed an interest/appreciation for uploaders i often uploaded ebouks i had bought.
well, both is no longer the case but if it were i still would.
i also occassionally buy music, books and even movies i very much like.
also i adhore being dependant on the whims of a company, being it amazon, netflix or spotify. i want a physical or at least selfowned copy of what i paid for and not only the licence to consume.
4I like having physical and digital media, and usually digital media is locked to a site that and a lot of my blu rays to burn them would take more effort than I realized so I like to obtain both
3When you purchase digital goods you're downloading capitalism.
3I pay for a service to not get letters with a bigger value than I pay.
Also I save money and for some of my friends as well.3There are times when I just but the app/service to support the devs (mostly small devs). Eg for Apps I have bought: Nova Launcher (long back and don't use), PowerAmp, MiXplorer Silver & Pano Scrobbler.
Could I get them for free? Definitely yes. Did I ever used Pirated version of them? Yes, of course.
2Its the feds! They are in here trying to guilt us because they know no other way to make us stop. May the redcoats end up in Davey Jones Locker!
1Ye it's wild. They also say they only pirate X or Y or do it because of Z. Like are you a pirate or not bro? You're either in or not. I pirate everything I possibly can. That goes for small indie companies up to the AAA guys, small film companies to box office. ALL OF IT. I always got downvoted for saying it too on a PIRACY sub! Shits wild.
Edit: Even on lemmy my point gets proven 🤣
-7I always got downvoted for saying it too on a PIRACY sub! Shits wild.
Is it? It sounds more like the people on the privacy subs had morals and knew their limits.
If you go to the bar and the bartender says "drinks are on the house!", you're still not going to go and order every single drink on the menu. You're not going to go off and drink yourself under the table, just because you personally don't have to pay for it. You understand that there's an opportunity to have something for free and you respectfully take up the offer and enjoy yourself.
Yes, video game practices are often downright toxic: Paying DLC for content that's already on your PC/ Disk. Unfinished games, loot boxes, low quality remasters, buggy releases - I get it. I'm not going to spend $70 of my hard earned money on some crap and have it be half the product I was promised, or have DRM that prevents me from playing the game further into the future.
But what about great indie titles like Baldurs Gate 3? Where's the justification there? It's some honest Devs who put everything into an amazing product. Why not spend the money you've saved up on other piracies on a well-deserved title?
Some smaller indie titles need every sale. It literally pays for their livelihood. Why pirate their work too?
There's honour among thieves. There's a code to not screw over the people who are making games for the love of it. If you don't care about any of that, fine. But don't go around bragging about it like it's your God-given right to steal.
Stealing everything from everyone isn't something you should be proud of. We all can't afford a lot of things atm, and that's understandable. But there are people out there trying to afford stuff by selling those very same games. Have a bit of respect for the game.
9Ah forgot about these guys also with their long wall of text to try and make me feel bad. Look i pirate to pirate I don't care about morals or limits. If i can get it for free I'm going to do it. If a bartender says drinks are on the house i will 100% abuse it to my fullest extent. Baldurs gate 3 got pirated by me without a 2nd thought. I'm a full blooded pirate not one sob story is going to stop me.
-10
I've been pirating software since 1985. Piracy was never about just stealing shit for the fuck of it, I mean you can do that if you want, but the point was that human culture and expression shouldn't be something that is afforded only certain demographics and those who have money.
You may feel like those ideals are completely irrelevant to you, but that's the type of hacker mentality that the people who actually crack software and share it online for people like you often hold.
7Hate to break it to you but the people that crack software/games don't do it to share. They do it for the fame and to be the 1st. It's a race for scene groups. Nothing more. They don't care about us.
2
That depends totally on the reason you pirate stuff. What are your motivations behind pirating? There are probably a ton of different reasons people do it. I often see people bragging about it so I guess fragile masculinity is a main factor in pirating as well. Or like another commenter said, it could be to experience freedom.
To me, it seems like a political act to pirate stuff from large corporations but pay money for indie media and small creators. Just like I would shoplift in large supermarket chains while I would never shoplift in a small family-run store.
1