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Piracy is bad.
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
-39 points (33.6% liked)
Unpopular Opinion
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Is it wrong to take food from a grocery store that would otherwise be thrown away? The grocery store isn't losing anything except potential future revenue.
This is the basic premise for a lot more people than will claim it or understand it...
Let's take a bin full of potatoes. Everyone's gonna pick the best potato. They'll dig around, examine, inspect, and pick the good ones. The shitty scruffy looking ones get left sitting there, and don't nobody who runs a shop wanna just wait until all the potatoes get chosen. They bring out new ones constantly to keep the bin full and have options available so people can pick the best ones.
Maybe once in a great while someone's buying potatoes for their pigs, and they look for crappy ones. Maybe once in a great while someone needs 200 potatoes and they don't wanna sit there being Picky Ricky for four fucking hours. Maybe once in a great while those crappy potatoes actually get chosen... but how often? Not very...
Netflix is that bin of potatoes. Is it wrong to pirate movies that are available on Netflix instead of paying Netflix? Well, it kinda depends on the fucking potato, don't it? You'll pay the $30/mo or whatever it is for a game of thrones, because you're getting what you pay for, and pirating that is definitely depriving Netflix of some value in its investment, but if you pirate billy bobs country bunker hour special from 1993, you're not taking jack shit from Netflix, it's an old wrinkly ass potato that's been sitting in the bin for a long ass time while people spent their money on better potatoes, fun it'll never make a goddamn penny for netflix. It's only value is adding quantity to the bin.
When it gets old enough that they'll throw it away, the deprivation of value has been reduced to being trivial. Your point is valid imho
Food that is being thrown away can’t produce future revenue. A film that is actively streaming on a paid site can. Your analogy doesn’t work.
Wdym? The store is still selling food. If you don't take the stuff being thrown away, you'd need to buy food from them.
The exact sets of bits are producing as much revenue as the thrown away food. But many people wouldn't buy if they didn't pirate, whereas people still need to eat.
Not with that attitude.
As @JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works said, if you don't get to take home free dumpster food, presumably you would have to buy fresher food.
And it isn't hypothetical, large grocery stores are IMMINENTLY worried about this and will call the police on people going through their dumpsters, or they will pour toxic chemicals on the food to render it inedible, or any number of fucked up ways to ensure waste.
Piracy is stealing.
Not really, there is no property loss. Nothing was taken. That's like saying taking a picture of a piece of art is stealing.
No.
What is stealing prey tell? I think it's wrongfully taking something from someone.
Exactly. Glad we're on the same page.
Nothing was taken. It is a copy. The original is still exactly where is was. It is by definition not theft.
Copies that weren't paid for.
But not taken, so not stealing by my definition you seemed to agree with
If you don't pay for something then it's theft. I win.
Charity?
But piracy takes nothing. The original owner still has it.
Who are you taking things from? Is the grocery store example wrong as well?
Crime is badass.
Die in a police shootout then.
:(
Dramatic much?
If I download something that I never would have paid for anyway, either because I just wouldn't pay for that product, or because I literally cannot pay for that product, who has lost out? I haven't deprived anyone of anything. It's not like I've taken a physical thing away from them.
Ok but then you create a production problem.
You download it, but that piece of media still had a cost of production. If you don't pay for it then the producers must find other monetization methods.
It's one of the reasons the modern web is based off ads, or why free-to-play with microtransanction is so common.
I'm not suggesting that I do this for everything, or that everyone should do it constantly. For example, I bought Baldur's Gate 3 on release, as it seemed worth it. But Ubisoft's latest shitfest? Probably might be worth a pirate, see if I enjoy it. If I do really enjoy it, I might buy the game. Or I might not, since Ubisoft are a bunch of utter cunts.
But here comes a problem of fairness.
You not only want to play the game, you also want to decide how much is worthed for the producer. If the price is too high, don't play it. Imagine going to a restaurant and saying "sure, cook for me, I'll later pay you if and how much I think it will worthed"
Not only this but:
Because you acknowledge the damaging nature of piracy, not only that, you also decide that rules are applied arbitrarily, which is a terrible thing to base your system on.
Yes you have.
How? I was never going to give them money. Digital files are not a finite resource. How have I deprived them of anything?
Because you didn't properly pay for it.
Are you being obstinate on purpose, or do you really not understand? I would not pay for these files. There is zero per cent chance of this company getting my money. How have they lost out by my copying these files?
I'm stubborn.
You're an idiot troll, I see.
No, I am set in my opinion.
What about a game or movie you've already bought? Are you morality allowed to copy it for your own use in your system?
No.
That form of piracy is even legal.