It is not. If you boycott something you aren't benefitting. You are making a sacrifice in order to enact a change. And critically, if corporations want you behave differently, in a boycott they give in to demands. With piracy, they try to crack down on piracy.

(and not from the artists).

I'm sorry, how do the artists get paid when you pirate?

I don't wanna boycott people making series, I want way-too-big publishers & co to die.

If that is genuinely what you want, all you have to do is not purchase the content. Pirating it does not help you kill giant publishers. All it does is make it shittier for the people funding your free entertainment.

As I said in a different comment, if this is actually a moral thing for you, for every dollar you save by not paying for the things you enjoy, donate it to a union. If you're not, it clearly wasn't really about the artists, it was about you getting free shit.

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I have to say I mostly disagree with your points.
At that kind of profit margins only the dividends get financed.

And I do spent the money on donations (FOSS devs, Wiki, random research, animal stuff), tho I haven't though of donating to unions. I didn't even know that is a thing. It isn't where I live.

I understand they need to be financed, but the whole point of unions is to get a better bargaining position & thus finance. That shouldn't need money. You dont donate to the strog guy that already has the power, you donate to the poor. Ot perhaps like some sort of semi-political parties that help organise workers? But we have regulators that strongly encourage unions at certain company size or sector.

What you can donate to or finance is smol studios. That's boycotting the big studios, regardless of content consumption.

[–] AndrasKrigare@beehaw.org 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

What are the margins, specifically? Do you do the research on every piece of media you take, or is "just kinda a feeling" that you believe enough for you to feel fine about what you do? And what is your line for at what point you'll grace them with your money?

It's great that you make donations, but do you make contributions in line with what you would have paid for the media to take? If so, I believe you that it's not about the money but a moral stance. If not, I don't believe that you aren't doing it for your own self interest.

I understand they need to be financed, but the whole point of unions is to get a better bargaining position & thus finance. That shouldn't need money. You dont donate to the strog guy that already has the power, you donate to the poor. Ot perhaps like some sort of semi-political parties that help organise workers? But we have regulators that strongly encourage unions at certain company size or sector.

I'm genuinely not sure what you're trying to say here. Are you saying that you don't think unions need money? Are you familiar with union dues? Or strike funds? Lobbyists or lawyers?

And are you saying that the unions are the "strog guys?" If so, then why are you saying that they don't make enough of a percent for it to justify you paying them for their work? If you want to pay to the poor or a charity, fine.

My fundamental point is, if you pirate a $20 movie/game/whatever and you don't donate $20 to whatever cause you feel is worthwhile, and instead keep that money for yourself, you are pirating because you want things without having to pay for it. Full stop. Anything else is just trying to justify your free shit.

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Whatever helps you sleep at night.

[–] AndrasKrigare@beehaw.org 1 points 4 months ago

That literally doesn't make sense here.

[–] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I’m sorry, how do the artists get paid when you pirate?

my guy, they were already paid for their time, this isn't a small indie production.

[–] AndrasKrigare@beehaw.org 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You didn't answer the question. Where did the money come from that paid for their time?

[–] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

the studios that originally produced the content, the people that are paying for streaming services, and if it's a movie, the box office earnings.

And physical media sales, if any.

[–] AndrasKrigare@beehaw.org 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

So, in summary, their income comes from people buying their stuff. So I ask again, how do artists get paid when you pirate? Or is your stance that you want the artists to get paid, you just want other people to do it for you?

[–] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 months ago

how does a business get paid when they fuck up and have to take a loss. How does a business get paid when they have no customers, this is literally rolled into the economics. There are very few situations where this should be a problem, unless you're withholding some draconian amount of control over the media.

If you're mega corpo billion dollar industry collapses because it can't release products that people won't pay for, that doesn't exactly sound like my problem.

Everybody needs money to live. A lot of people are fine paying a bit of money to get access to media they like. Not everyone though, and you know what? That's ok, it's free marketing. A commonly reiterated statement is that people who pirate things, aren't people who are going to pay for something to begin with. However they are significantly more likely to pay for it after the fact. Or for future releases coming from the same entity. It's still net positive income at the end of the day. Most people don't want .WAV files, or .MKVs they want to watch the content. And that's what they'll do.