this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2023
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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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[–] FLX@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Everything not physical that can be pirated should be pirated.

You have better thing to do with your money.

Books exist to be lent out.

Games too at the time. Now you can't because of bullshit, so joke on them I won't pay.

Books & Music money is not going to the artists.

Movie world is full of shit and overpaid anyway.

I also don't wan't a single of my cents going to USA or US company.

If I like something so much I feel I should pay, which is rare, I find a more direct way without leeches.

[–] ZugZugDaBoo@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Something fun I listened to today about tpb and free access to information/cultural peices of art. Kinda.. https://youtu.be/eFQFW5JgUjE?si=50BXG19ey8pVEYfv

[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 4 points 2 years ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://youtu.be/eFQFW5JgUjE?si=50BXG19ey8pVEYfv

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

[–] dutchkimble@lemy.lol 4 points 2 years ago

It's the ease of use for me. Arrs + usenet + plex is an unbeatable combo.

[–] Dawn@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Yes, I pirate, and I pirate alot. Games, books, shows, software, I do it all. But I also buy stuff, mainly games, occasionally books. I'm am not in a position where I have the sort of money to buy everything I want.

My piracy philosophy is mainly to almost always pirate it first. If I like the game enough, I'll buy the game when I have the money. I have done this alot, A Hat in Time, Hollow Knight, and recently Baldurs Gate 3.

With books it's alot more difficult, as they tend to be alot more expensive than games, especially for the series I read. (Manga and Light Novels). As there will fairly often be around 30$ per volume where I live, and close to 12 volumes total. And that's if you can even buy them in the country, or if they have even been translated officially, which if they haven't, then piracy is your only choice to read it.

Regarding shows, I basically only watch Anime, and the only way to really stream Anime is crunchyroll, which region locks alot of the shows, gives hardly any money back to the actual creators of the shows, then uses the money they get to make awful shows. Pirating anime is realistically the only way to enjoy it hassle free.

For software, everything is license based now, I'm willing to do one off purchases at a reasonable price (something like steam wallpaper engine), but I hate recurring fees. I pirate software like photoshop.

Ultimately piracy isn't really as bad as people tend to think it is, it's largely just people enjoying the stuff that they would never have been able to pay to enjoy anyway. It's especially good for people with less disposable income in helping them find where they can spend the money on things they enjoy, such as with me with the games I mentioned earlier.

[–] paddirn@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

I used to pirate quite a bit, but I’ve since pulled back and I’ll even buy stuff that I had formerly pirated, because I appreciated it so well and wanted to get a β€œclean” copy. Alot of the pirated stuff just sort of sits there most of the time, I’m kind of more a data hoarder than an active pirate. I β€œjustify” my pirating by considering myself more of an archivist, as a big chunk of the stuff I pirate is old out-of-print RPGs that would have long ago disappeared completely were it not for piracy.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 years ago

i'm on basic welfare (400 dollars per month to afford everything i need) so yeah, i don't exactly have a choice..

[–] mawkishdave@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Just big companies and because they will screw people over for a profit.

[–] addys@lemmy.ninja 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I live outside the US market. As a rule I'll pay for whatever content is legally available in my country (netflix, disney+, steam etc) however there are certain publishers and/or content which is simply not offered through any channel. At that point they aren't going to see $ from me in any case, so I may as well pirate.

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[–] cyclohexane@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

I have no issue pirating:

  • any content with massive profits
  • any content made by a very rich entity
  • any content where the artists, authors, creators, et al get a minority of the revenue (example: scientific journals, college textbooks). I always search for alternate methods of paying the artists directly if they exist.
[–] FactuallyUnscrupulou@hexbear.net 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

I want to start pirating and I want a forever solution to media management. Photos, music, movies/television, audiobooks/podcasts, even construction literature I use for work. I don't know where to begin however. I'm just thinking I'll need to spend an incredible amount of money if I ever want to continue any subscription model.

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[–] the_lone_wolf@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

I just don't earn enough money to justify paying for movies, games and books, i can use those money to pay my bills and what little left after paying my bills, i save it for future

[–] StantonVitales@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago

I pirate. I don't justify pirating. I just do it, because I want things and have the ability to get them for free, so I do that.

[–] Ozymati@lemmy.nz 3 points 2 years ago

I will pirate it if it's old (tv series from the 80's, for example) or if I can't get it legally. I live in a country that falls through distribution loopholes moderately often. Like right now, I can't watch the latest season of Lower Decks on prime even though I could the previous ones. Some kind of licensing thing. If it's not resolved soon, I'll be taking to the high seas for it.

[–] N1NJ4W4RR10R_@aussie.zone 3 points 2 years ago

Only thing I've pirated was a show with no reasonable means to access it legitimately in my region. Hell, I couldn't even access it via VPN because the services it was on didn't accept my card due to region.

Normally of the mind that if it isn't worth my money it isn't worth my time, but in this case I just wasn't allowed to pay them for it. Hardly my fault when they've gone that far out of their way to block me buying it.

[–] HarriPotero@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I pirate metric shitloads of movies and series. I don't pirate music or games (much).

I watch maybe 5-10% of what I download. That's probably true for the games I buy as well.

The reason is part convenience. I probably listen to royalty free 95% music of the time, but for the other occasions Spotify has anything and everything I want to listen to. I can't beat that library.

I game on Linux, the Switch and old retro computers. The old retro computers have all pirated games on them, but for Linux and Switch I buy my stuff on the Nintendo shop and Steam. They have everything and it just works.

The video streaming services of today have also taught me that they will pull licenses. When Netflix had a big library I stuck mostly to that, but today it feels like all the good content has been pulled and they mostly just have Netflix originals. So Hollywood has taught me that If I want to watch something, I shouldn't rely on it being available on my streaming service of choice in the future. I'm not going to subscribe to a dozen streaming services just for the odd chance that I want to watch something particular. I'm going to have my own plex server with everything I might want to watch.

The one show that would make me consider getting a second streaming subscription just to support it is Futurama. But of course, Hulu is not available in my region.. so, yarr.

[–] CrowAirbrush@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

If i don't see the value i'm pirating.

Money is tight, don't expect me to pay for a play button that you'll take away the second i can't spare the money. It means there is no value delivered for my money so i don't have a reason to spend my hard earned money.

Especially when the amouny is as significant as 10/15€. Fuck i would've bought a cd for each month i could spare that money.

[–] Getallen@feddit.nl 3 points 2 years ago

If its not multiplayer, why care.

[–] kuneho@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I used to pirate anything. Music, movies, softwares, games...

Since I have a developer job and a stable income, I don't really pirate much stuff anymore, only movies and series, but then the whole piracy thing is not even illegal here where I live.

Maybe softwares, too, if I can't find any free and/or open source alternative of it.

For games and music, I like to pay, if I can. If it's expensive, I wait to some sale.

And also, with pirated stuff, you always end up something doesn't work or missing or you just have to make compromises. Fuck that, I'm too old for that.

One aspect of pirating is appealing to me tho - preservation. Anything you can't go and just buy because of dead services or just time going by needs to be preserved. It applies for hardwares, too. Liberating closed hardware and software is a noble thing in my eyes, and it justifies piracy.

[–] shashi154263@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

Yes. Because I can't afford either.

[–] CaptainBlagbird@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Me? No! I wouldn't...

[–] dbilitated@aussie.zone 3 points 2 years ago

I did when I was young and broke. now I don't. πŸ€·β€β™‚οΈ

[–] gearheart@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

I need the definition of pirating since it always means something different to someone else.

If I stream movies and shows using my friends library am I pirating? What if I download a show from my friends library for later viewing for personal use, then delete it a week later since I don't need it? Let's assume my friends library was all purchased legitimatly.

[–] alokir@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I usually don't pirate, if something is overpriced then I'll wait until it's on sale. I have a set budget every month that I pay for entertainment, if something like a new video game is more expensive I'll just wait a month.

I'm especially against pirating products of asshole companies like Adobe. That's because even if you don't pay for them you're still popularizing their products, helping it stay an industry standard. I'm not in a profession where they're a necessity so I use their competitors like Affinity, which is good enough for my purposes, and I'm ok with supporting them.

I sometimes watch movies or series on non-legal streaming sites if they're not available elsewhere, but that's about it.

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[–] Pat@kbin.run 3 points 2 years ago

You cannot steal what is not physical. Theft implies removing a physical object from somewhere, creating a loss of an item.

Digital information is 1s and 0s, and you just create a copy. You do not remove the original one. There is no theft taking place.

The value of a product does not go down because I didn't pay for it. If anything, if it's a quality product, the value goes up. If I pirate something and enjoy it, chances are I will pay for it when I can afford to. If I pirate something and don't enjoy it, well, I wasn't going to buy the product anyway so there's no loss. Let's say I watch a movie at a friend's house and absolutely hate it. I do not buy the movie. How is that different than pirating it and coming to the same conclusion? I see the movie without paying money.

[–] mrbubblesort@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

I pirate almost all american media, movies, tv shows, games, etc because often there's no legal way to get it in my country until months after release, if at all. Which is bullshit considering it's japan, not some backwater 3rd world hell hole, so you'd think there'd be more options, but if it's not on Netflix or Disney+, you're shit outta luck.

[–] Subject6051@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

3rd world hell hole,

I am offended, how will I ever sleep :')

[–] mrbubblesort@kbin.social 4 points 2 years ago

very sorry, but really, how else should I refer to Iowa and Nebraska? :P

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[–] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 years ago

When there's no legitimate way for me to rent something. I recently downloaded Joe vs the Volcano and Counterpart because there's no streaming service that has them on offer.

[–] Mandy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago

After going through many phases of why i should and or want to pirate, i honestly just stopped giving a shit entirely about any of those and i ended with "who gives a shit, fuck em"

those that deserve my money get it directly

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