I don’t pirate because I’m opposed to paying for things. I pirate stuff because I don’t want to support scumbag corporations that don’t give a shit about me. In fact, I buy most of the media and games I consume, in order to support the devs behind it.
And that’s not a “new piracy gen”, that’s how piracy has always been for most people. You’re the odd one out here.
Yea, I’ll pay for things. The problem is, what I want (DRM free media I can use on anything that will open them) is not generally for sale.
Exactly. When pirating is more convenient than purchasing, I’ll pirate.
Well said!
Pirate some things, pay for some things. It doesn’t have to be absolute.
Only a Sith deals in absolutes.
Because in the words of GabeN, piracy (in a 1st world country at least) is a service problem and not a pricing problem. Many things are worth paying for, especially when you are supporting smaller creators, artists and indie game devs. But when heavy-handed DRM’s and corporate shovelware and services that actively remove content I pay for makes it a shit experience. I’m gonna just torrent that shit, fuck 'em
But when heavy-handed DRM’s and corporate shovelware and services that actively remove content I pay for makes it a shit experience. I’m gonna just torrent that shit
The annoying hurdles are what get me. I’ve cracked a lot of the games that I own because I hate forced updates, going through an additional client, or being asked to sign in for another service that I won’t use.
I once had a valid office key… But since I reset my computer to often the amount of “free activations” was used up… There where so many hoops to jump through to re-activate it that it was easier to get a cracked key to activate my office version… That’s just sick
That kind of related: when mostly single use software works off of a subscription model versus just being available for purchase.
Jep I hate the, “you don’t own anything anymore” mentality… There are some valid reasons to actually provide a subscription, but most of the times it should just be a one time payment
Amen
Pirating gives me the option not to support shit corporations that fuck over consumers with no business ethics. I can pirate the content I choose and pay for it when I want to support creators.
Historically, pirating and underground markets for good and services begin to proliferate in a society as a sign that their economic system is failing. IMHO, unbridled capitalism and corporate shitification in the US is turning the Internet into a hellscape with 5 companies basically controlling the entire Internet with so much lobbying muscle behind them they remain untouchable through what remains of the democratic system.
It’s a convenience thing. Remember when Apple Music and Spotify used to be $5.99 a few years ago? It was really hard to justify pirating then, for example. Like I’d have to find what I was looking for, close a million pop ups to get the torrent, download it, then upload the files onto whatever device I was using. And I would have to do it over again for the car, and over again for my wife if she asked for it, etc.
Or I could just type it into a search bar, and bam. All for $5.99, and I didn’t have to worry about storage? Sign me up.
The convenience of Spotify is still sort of worth the price, but it’s getting pretty marginal. The other streaming services we use brought us the same level of convenience, but they are getting way too greedy and creating way too many of them. Netflix and the media streamers turned into Cable. Which is going to inevitably turn us all back to pirating as they start cracking down on password sharing and keep creating new services with bloated fees.
The dumb fuckers literally figured out how to defeat piracy. And then drove us back to piracy with their greed. So when they inevitably start crying about it again, tell them all to eat shit.
Between power, hardware depreciation, Usenet/indexer fees and VPN I probably pay somewhere like €50/month to curate my own media collection.
I’d be happy to pay the same for a legal platform that has all the content I want in the same place, like Spotify for music (which I use and pay for).
Right now the piracy experience for movies/series is simply superior to the legal experience , so there is absolutely no incentive for me to switch things up.
And digital games being the same price as the physical copy. I remember when they were trying to say the uptick in price was due to the box and stuff inside, then digital came along and it was the same price, proving they lied and are simply greedy. Even if it was only $10 less I could justify the ridiculous price. Games should cost more. A lot of work went into them. But not $70. That’s over a days worth of work for those poor folk who make minimum wage.
This, 100% this, especially that last paragraph.
That and spotify quality is pretty horrendous for music
When I was younger I pirated because I didn’t have any money to spare for digital media. Today I have a stable income and can afford all these things but I still pirate because it’s just more convenient in many ways.
Whenever I consume something that I really like I 100% support the artist / developers mostly by buying this exact product and / or some merch or by going to their concerts (if it’s music related)
To me piracy is just a way of freedom. Which includes to respect other people if they like or dislike spending money on certain things. In my eyes we should not split this community in such a way because this would kill the essence of freedom to make your own choices
I’m a bit astonished how often I see this kind of thread, even here. It’s like when people complain about FOSS apps charging subscriptions or standalone fees. How many times does it have to be pointed out that piracy as an activity does not define piracy as a movement or a collective?
I’m certain this simplistic “piracy = not paying for stuff” take can only come from a kind of ignorant individualism, one that lacks any structural analysis of why, when, and for what content people turn to piracy (and why, when, etc, they stop).
piracy = not paying for stuff - in many countries around the world, that’s more like a cultural thing. I know because I’ve in both sides. I come from a 3rd world country but now live in Europe.
I would say there are levels to pirates. Not everyone here wants or needs to be a pirate 100% of the time. Sure, everyone could download all their music but why bother if you have a streaming service that you consider cheap and you prefer streaming over storage. Like anything, they’re levels to it.
just use NewPipe and you can stream and download privacy frendly and legal for free
This, I pay for most stuff. But I pirate stuff I’m not sure about
Most of us are presumably adults who can afford to pay for things when they’re convenient. That’s what it’s about for me, convenience. If you’re not making it convenient for me to buy your thing fair and square, then I’m gonna pirate it.
In the case of small little indie bands, they often aren’t on torrent sites at all. Given the choice between Spotify and Bandcamp, I’m going to buy the album on Bandcamp 100% of the time. I can contribute to the artist more and usually end up with a vinyl copy on the process.
Pirating has always been a solution to poor ease of access to content. If I could pay a legitimate subscription for a site with the catalog of PTP or RED, I would do it in a heartbeat. It will never happen though.
Depends on what it is? I pirated music for years when I couldn’t afford to buy albums. When I finally could afford to support the artists I liked by buying their stuff I did. It’s part of the reason I find the move to streaming services so frustrating. I want to pay once for access to an album. Not 100 times.
if the author of a book is still alive and not an absolute tool I’ll pay for it. I’ll absolutely crack it, but I’ll pay for it. and I pay for my VPN
There’s a few DVDs I bought recently of movies that I couldn’t find anywhere. 50/50 about uploading them to a torrent site. I want to but is there any way it could be traced back to me?
If you worried about Tracking back to you , why not upload it to private torrent, or rip it and ask in forum in private torrent on how they can help you. Win win for all.
Pretty safe. Just use a VPN, a new unique handle/email address if you’re extra concerned, and don’t post DVD screens with unique watermarks that identify you as the recipient.
There wouldn’t be any GPS data like what’s in photos to worry about.
I would have never bought skyrim if I didn’t pirate it first. Studios should pay marketing commision for pirates
Sometimes if I pirate a game and the game was actually pretty good, I will go ahead and buy the game after. I do it less often now that we have steam. As an example I pirated ghost trick years ago as it was only for the ds and I didn’t want to buy a ds. Later the game became available on steam so I bought it.
Maybe astroturfing, but most likely just people trying to be morally superior to one another.
