this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
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All games are technically licensed or something like that. I can't remember precisely how, but software is licensed and pirating is considered "breach of contract", not stealing. You shouldn't take my word for it because idk what I'm talking about. All I know is rich people hate it, so fuck'em!!
Pirating is copyright infringement. In other words, you infringed on the rights of the copyright owner to dictate how their “copy” is used. In this case, the term “copy” is being used as in “collection of writing”, not the common colloquial synonym for “duplicate” - copyright was invented before video games, after all ;)
So in other words: no it’s never been theft
Yes. It was (and is) the other kind of legal offence. A copyright infringement, as you described exhaustively.
No, i legitimately bought it. You saying "it's actually merely a usage license" is not my concern, yell at the shop that sold it with some fineprint somewhere.
conceptually how can i violate a license i'm not party to? (idk what i'm talking about either but i like pretending)
Because use of the product comes with an agreement.
And no, you can't "la-la-la, I'm not listening to this agreement, I'm not seeing it" your way out of it.