this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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It's not stealing, it's copying data my dude. If they want to monetize on software, they can completely. SaaS exists and it's everywhere. Me downloading a piece of software and running on my machine doesn't actually cost them anything either. And they are not losing sales, because I would not have bought it otherwise. I dislike being forced to pirate, and would love my fellow friends not being forced to use Photoshop for example just because it's an industry standard. It's closed, it's very limiting, but they can't use Gimp due to limited collaboration possibility after, so using a pirated piece of software to convert to and from correctly just to work with it seems more than reasonable.
I know it seems insane, but there are other schools of thought than the dominant capitalism model we live under. Religious communities also seem insane. For bloody sake Kopimism also exists. The problem everyone sees is that your only argument is lost sales (which is valid and correct under capitalism) and there are other points that must be acknowledged. Some may argue, they are more important than what money can measure.
You can say capitalism is not important all you want. The fact is that people need money to feed their families.
If pirating was much more widespread, industries would die and workers would have no jobs. That's a fact.
The only thing stopping piracy from growing are laws.
Capitalism is important, never said it wasn't. It actually gamifies our choices as producers, also helps by providing a metric of desires. The fact is people need food and it works well (we will ignore the subsidies on food production) to produce it and distribute it. The taxes works as a great tool to force you into the game. The problem pirates see, is that you can monopolize on a production of a product and ruin the game for all. For example when during a crisis someone starts selling water for 25 dollars a bottle due to being the only available provider at which point that is seen as unethical and stealing as ethical. So with this view people see it ethical, because there are tribalisism reasons why you more or less must have consumed a piece of media in order to fit in.
So far, "fitting in" has been the worst excuse for stealing. So, can people go into an IShop and steal Iphones because they want to fit in?
Look, I don't care if people steal. Go, do it, I'm doing it too... But pretending it isn't wrong is such bullshit.
How is stealing anyone's effort and hard work fine? Just because the work can be duplicated easily doesn't mean that it didn't take a lot of effort to produce and should be sold individually.
Imagine telling a book author that they only sold a copy because everyone agrees copying and sharing his book was fine. It took him 5 years to write it. He'd probably kill himself. Again just because something can be duplicated doesn't mean it doesn't take work!!!
No, stealing an object is not copying my dude. I don't encourage stealing unless it's a basic human right ( water/food stealing for survival is another subject for example ).
Again copying is not stealing. I'm not disregarding he should not be compensated for his work. I'm against pay walling for people who can't afford the information. It's needlessly cruel.
Imagine me writing a new book which basically is the same book, then going full on on ads and selling way more then the first guy. Then suing the first guy for stealing my ideas (disregarding the fact it was I who stole) and getting a monopoly on it. Then imagine it becoming a staple book on which everyone in an industry must have. Is it ethical to steal from me or not?
What's the point of your last paragraph, are you saying that only certain pirating is ethical?
Because I agree it is OK in that particular scenario, but not everywhere. But people here aren't being this specific. And it is weird that you had to go to that specific scenario after I told you how piracy can destroy the life of a person.
The point is that there are cases that it's okay and ethical. That was the point from the beginning. Also that creative works are special and there should be a different way to compensate creators for them than to gate keep the poorest people from enjoying the media or getting crucial information for deepening their craft.
Streaming services are cheaper in India. Games are cheaper in India.
I'm not sure what gatekeeping you're talking about.
Also, imagine saying a top restaurant is gatekeeping people from quality food. Well, damn, quality music is more expensive to produce!! Quality books take longer to write!! Quality movies require millions of dollars!!