this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
858 points (98.6% liked)
Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
54788 readers
757 users here now
⚓ Dedicated to the discussion of digital piracy, including ethical problems and legal advancements.
Rules • Full Version
1. Posts must be related to the discussion of digital piracy
2. Don't request invites, trade, sell, or self-promote
3. Don't request or link to specific pirated titles, including DMs
4. Don't submit low-quality posts, be entitled, or harass others
Loot, Pillage, & Plunder
📜 c/Piracy Wiki (Community Edition):
💰 Please help cover server costs.
 |
 |
|---|---|
| Ko-fi | Liberapay |
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
In this case, the phrase's become more popular because people buy digital goods and, due to business shenanigans, they lose access to it, like buying a digital copy of a movie, "owning it", then no longer being able to access it because Sony couldn't be arsed to get the rights sorted out.
There's also the numerous situations where you can't legally own media, simply because it's not up for sale, like the vast majority of content on streaming sites. There's no way to own and consume some media except through the provider. It's still illegal, it's still an unauthorized copy, but in this case, it's the only way to "own" something.
Despite crappy licensing agreements and the tenuous relationship between consumers and ownership of a thing, finding a way to circumvent paying for a thing that is for sale in one form or another, is theft.
By that definition making coffee at home and taking it with you to work instead of buying is theft.
Even further anytime you make a product or do a service yourself or get a free alternative (for example, open source software instead of a close-source alternative) instead of buying would be theft by that definition.
That's not the legal definition of "theft", it's not even the historical or common sense definition of "theft", it's some kind of neo-Capitalist Dystopia definition of "theft" that only makes sense if you're starting from a foundation of there being a "right to make money".
How dare you cook dinner for yourself when McDonald's is right there? How will the franchise owners or the brand owners be able to buy meals for their children!?
Look man, I get that piracy isnt an ethically clean solution, but the current state of legal digital media is nowhere near ethically clean either, and I'm far more likely to root for a person than I am for a corporation. Especially since its because of corporations that the digital ownership sphere is so fucked