6 ms·

I am brazillian. Here people BUY pirated stuff, sometimes more expensive than the original. The reason is convenience and good service. When you buy pirated

I am brazillian. Here people BUY pirated stuff, sometimes more expensive than the original. The reason is convenience and good service. When you buy pirated software and games from the street dealer, you get: often, better support than the publisher (specially for popular software, you ask him what is bothering you, he probably memorized the solution and tells you, while publisher support often is completely null, Google-style) easier to install (custom installers are popular in pirated stuff). sometimes have better patches, for example games with custom patches to run in older versions of Windows, or that fix popular issues (like Dark Souls at launch had tons of problems on PC, pirated versions fixed it, or Final Fantasy XV, the pirated version runs faster than the legitimate one, some people speculate that is because Denuvo, or because the lack of Denuvo allowed better optimization settings during compile time). Translated to portuguese. Has manual! Yes, sometimes the original software is lacking manual, while because during ancient times pirated software had no printed manual, people would add short manuals as a read-me file, some pirates still do that, even for software that has no manual at all. Regarding games, Valve realized all that and Steam helped a lot, but before Steam it was common here to people buy even stuff that was free (many piracy dealers sold linux distros and other FOSS stuff) because of the convenience. EDIT: forgot a big one... pirated stuff you can pay for it. Yes... as weird it sounds, sometimes people wanted to buy a something, but it wasn't available here, often due to a stupid combination of region restrictions + exclusive publishing deals, since we are in South America, sometimes stuff would get into a legal limbo, whoever had "America" rights would focus in publishing in the US, and would block whoever had Europe or JP rights from publishing here. This sadly is still common, specially with books, Barnes & Noble is a company that greatly aggravated me on that, I bought, legally, a lot of books that were only available in my country on the store "Fictionwise", BN bought them and demand me to be physically in USA to download the books I bought... Or Electronic Arts, that only allowed officially USA players on Ultima Online, leading to a vibrant pirated server community in Brazil, since you couldn't play legally here.

xzcat 7y ago
Just for the record, for the most part, it should be legal to sell CD's of most Linux distributions, assuming you honor the GPL and any other licenses for any software that's physically on the disk.
- zorked 7y ago
  I'm a bit familiar with the sorts of commerce that the parent mentioned. Back when broadband was uncommon there were shops where you could just order anything that could be found on the Internet and they would burn a CD-R for you. They would keep the most popular files cached locally, and for the really popular stuff they would have pre-burned CDs in small kits with a xeroxed manual and maybe a colored cover and the like. Support was a big thing too, and community: it was a place where people would hang out a bit and talk to other people, share recommendations, meet people who could fix equipment, etc. So if you ordered a Linux distro they would prepare it for you just like any software, VCD, disk full of MP3s, etc. I know of people who were introduced to Linux via these shops. There used to be an earlier version of this sort of shop where you could bring floppy disks and they would copy them for you. As far as I know all of this has just about disappeared. Piracy exists but it is nowhere near as popular as it used to be. What those shops basically sold was bandwidth: it was a physical version of pirate BBSs and w4r3z websites, from a time when phone and Internet access was harder to have.
bergstromm466 7y ago
Ok you might want to watch this short documentary. Your fun 'pirated' games and software with 'better support' might cost you dearly when your daughter or your girlfriend/wife gets filmed by a hacker, using your own webcam. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFS3p0emftw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFS3p0emftw - "Security awareness: Filmmaker explores RAT malware, buys access to random PCs for just 15 cents a piece - made short film about his experience" Movies and other media files that don't run any scripts are ok if you're careful and know what you're doing, but installing pirated software is an invitation to get blackmailed and extored by darknet hackers.
- bananamerica 7y ago
  I do not pirate anything anymore, but I have covered my webcam with tape for many years. I also don't have a daughter, but I am Brazilian. Just adding a data point.
  - thulecitizen 7y ago
    It's not just about webcams or recording your microphone. That's just the tip of the iceberg.
    - bananamerica 7y ago
      I use a desktop nowadays. So no input whatsoever, unless I explicitly buy it and plug it.
      - thulecitizen 7y ago
        Your keyboard is an input device. That is what I am talking about. I am saying that with a Remote Access Trojan, they can do much more than access your mic or webcam. "What is a RAT (remote access Trojan)? A remote access Trojan (RAT) is a malware program that includes a back door for administrative control over the target computer. RATs are usually downloaded invisibly with a user-requested program -- such as a game -- or sent as an email attachment. Once the host system is compromised, the intruder may use it to distribute RATs to other vulnerable computers and establish a botnet. Because a RAT enables administrative control, it makes it possible for the intruder to do just about anything on the targeted computer, including: - Deleting, downloading or altering files and file systems. - Monitoring user behavior through keyloggers or other spyware. - Accessing confidential information, such as credit card and social security numbers. - Taking screenshots. - Distributing viruses and other malware. - Formatting drives." Source: https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/RAT-remote-access-Trojan https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/RAT-remote-...

xzcat 7y ago

Just for the record, for the most part, it should be legal to sell CD's of most Linux distributions, assuming you honor the GPL and any other licenses for any software that's physically on the disk.

zorked 7y ago
I'm a bit familiar with the sorts of commerce that the parent mentioned. Back when broadband was uncommon there were shops where you could just order anything that could be found on the Internet and they would burn a CD-R for you. They would keep the most popular files cached locally, and for the really popular stuff they would have pre-burned CDs in small kits with a xeroxed manual and maybe a colored cover and the like. Support was a big thing too, and community: it was a place where people would hang out a bit and talk to other people, share recommendations, meet people who could fix equipment, etc. So if you ordered a Linux distro they would prepare it for you just like any software, VCD, disk full of MP3s, etc. I know of people who were introduced to Linux via these shops. There used to be an earlier version of this sort of shop where you could bring floppy disks and they would copy them for you. As far as I know all of this has just about disappeared. Piracy exists but it is nowhere near as popular as it used to be. What those shops basically sold was bandwidth: it was a physical version of pirate BBSs and w4r3z websites, from a time when phone and Internet access was harder to have.

bergstromm466 7y ago

Ok you might want to watch this short documentary. Your fun 'pirated' games and software with 'better support' might cost you dearly when your daughter or your girlfriend/wife gets filmed by a hacker, using your own webcam. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFS3p0emftw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFS3p0emftw - "Security awareness: Filmmaker explores RAT malware, buys access to random PCs for just 15 cents a piece - made short film about his experience" Movies and other media files that don't run any scripts are ok if you're careful and know what you're doing, but installing pirated software is an invitation to get blackmailed and extored by darknet hackers.

bananamerica 7y ago
I do not pirate anything anymore, but I have covered my webcam with tape for many years. I also don't have a daughter, but I am Brazilian. Just adding a data point.
- thulecitizen 7y ago
  It's not just about webcams or recording your microphone. That's just the tip of the iceberg.
  - bananamerica 7y ago
    I use a desktop nowadays. So no input whatsoever, unless I explicitly buy it and plug it.
    - thulecitizen 7y ago
      Your keyboard is an input device. That is what I am talking about. I am saying that with a Remote Access Trojan, they can do much more than access your mic or webcam. "What is a RAT (remote access Trojan)? A remote access Trojan (RAT) is a malware program that includes a back door for administrative control over the target computer. RATs are usually downloaded invisibly with a user-requested program -- such as a game -- or sent as an email attachment. Once the host system is compromised, the intruder may use it to distribute RATs to other vulnerable computers and establish a botnet. Because a RAT enables administrative control, it makes it possible for the intruder to do just about anything on the targeted computer, including: - Deleting, downloading or altering files and file systems. - Monitoring user behavior through keyloggers or other spyware. - Accessing confidential information, such as credit card and social security numbers. - Taking screenshots. - Distributing viruses and other malware. - Formatting drives." Source: https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/RAT-remote-access-Trojan https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/RAT-remote-...