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Do you pirate? And do you justify pirating? i.e., what is your piracy philosophy? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Subject6051@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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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?

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[–] sajran@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

I definitely mean "stealing" as "depriving the publisher of the cost". Limiting the term "stealing" just to moving physical objects really makes no sense in the current world.

it only holds if you'd actually have ponied up were the content not available for free

That's an interesting case I never really considered. If you only genuinely pirate stuff you would never buy otherwise then... I guess it's fine? But this alone doesn't put the end to the discussion because I find it really hard to believe that people would just give up all of the stuff they pirate if they had to pay for it. But in some cases, sure, sounds reasonable.

Artistic content is, believe it or not, produced outside of capitalism as well.

That's true of course but I don't think just pretending we don't live in a capitalist world and taking stuff for free is making this world better in any way.

Let's say something costs $20, from which 75% goes to make some rich guy even richer and only 25% goes to the actual author who put in the work. It's more important to me to give that $5 to the author than NOT to give the $15 to the rich guy. Would I prefer there wasn't a rich guy in the equation? Yes, of course, but that's often just not possible.

In the end, I genuinely want the world to be a better place but I don't really believe in extreme solutions. I appreciate your civilized answer despite different opinions. Peace!