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You don’t understand China. They have a saying, “cheat or be cheated” The entire country is a country of scammers where the rules of the game are to cheat as m

You don’t understand China. They have a saying, “cheat or be cheated” The entire country is a country of scammers where the rules of the game are to cheat as much as possible. Like the article said, literally think of yourself as a member of a gang where killing people gets you “street cred”. Cheating is an aspect of street cred for Chinese people.. if you cheat and get away with it, it’s something to be proud of. The Chinese will ‘lie’ to authorities about cheating, but among friends it’s high fives all around. How do I know this? I’m Chinese. Born in the states but with ties to the east. I don’t know if it’s genetic or if it’s cultural but growing up I never purchased a single game or purchased a single movie or piece of music and I was proud of cheating the system. In fact me and many people in Asia think you’re stupid if you pay money for any form of electronic digital media when all of it can be pirated easily. This is the mentality of basically most of Asia with the exception of Japan and to a lesser extent Korea. I get your mentality though. The rules of US culture is basically fairness. It pervades the mentality of the country but you have to understand different games have different rules. For example in mafia the name of the game is to deceive everyone. Deception is therefore praised and you are proud if you win the game via deception. Just like how a simple game can flip a switch so can culture. China is playing mafia while the US is playing chess.

powerapple 6y ago
The reason you don't purchase games or movie or music is that you are poor. Your behaviour is mostly determined by your financial status. I am a Chinese, and I haven't used pirated software since I started my first job. Of course, some people cheat, I hope they are not proud about it.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- neonological 6y ago
  No I pirate because it makes economic sense and also because I feel no shame in doing so. Neither do the chinese. Having money doesn't prevent people from picking lower prices options. The cultural attitude I talk about dominates most of the culture in china. You walk into shenzhen not only is software pirated but entire phones, products and hardware is pirated and sold publicly. It's completely normal in china. Not to mention many people are proud of their own businesses. Whatever your experience is I feel you're telling it from within some social strata that is largely different from the rest of china and this is only a minority opinion. Like the author I say this in the most non judgmental way possible.
  - powerapple 6y ago
    No, there are iPhone assembled from parts, I won't call it pirated. And people who buy those phones because they cannot afford it. It is very different from what you are doing. And the worst part of your story is that you attribute what you did to something not yours, so you don't have to take the responsibility of your own behavior. It is wrong. Look at the iPhone sales figure from Apple, and look at android sales numbers. And you are trying to suggest that "the rest of China" buys a counter fake iPhone? You are either dishonest or you know nothing about China.
    - neonological 6y ago
      > No, there are iPhone assembled from parts, I won't call it pirated. And people who buy those phones because they cannot afford it. It is very different from what you are doing. And the worst part of your story is that you attribute what you did to something not yours, so you don't have to take the responsibility of your own behavior. It is wrong. Some are legit parts. Many are pirated. There's even android phones sold under the apple brand with a reskinned android OS. You 100% don't know what you're talking about at all. You want proof? Watch it: https://youtu.be/e4wbFdePb-k?t=278 https://youtu.be/e4wbFdePb-k?t=278 The more you watch the more educated you'll be. >Look at the iPhone sales figure from Apple, and look at android sales numbers. And you are trying to suggest that "the rest of China" buys a counter fake iPhone? You are either dishonest or you know nothing about China. Yes. Dude. In China they have entire factories that build counterfeit stuff. >And the worst part of your story is that you attribute what you did to something not yours, so you don't have to take the responsibility of your own behavior. It is wrong. This is where you're wrong. I never admitted or justified what I was doing as right or wrong. In fact I think it's wrong. I'm human and I'm not perfect. I'm very capable of doing things that are wrong. The difference between you and me is that I don't have to lie to myself about the reality of what I'm doing. I don't have to justify it to myself. It's wrong, but I do it regardless without lying to myself. There are moral lines I don't cross, but I'm no boy scout. If you can't see that pirated goods are rampant in China than you're lying to yourself. Stop lying. Accept reality for what it is, don't let national pride blind you from the absolute truth.
- 1996 6y ago
  I am Chinese too and like you, I usually don't bother with pirating since it's a lost of time. > I hope they are not proud about it. But like the parent post I have no shame or guilt in not paying for content. And I'm proud about being clever! It may be a mentality, as I do think people are stupid to pay for a DRM ebook while libgen has it without DRM. But if it takes more than 2 minutes to find it, I buy it.
  - powerapple 6y ago
    Sometimes people don't take responsibility for what they do, they contribute it easily to other factors, such as culture, race or whatever. It is not likely everyone grow up to be responsible at the same age, one day you will change. You can have any excuse you want to have for now. I won't understand people working in the best paid industry and behave like this. For ebooks, there are scribd, kindle, oreiley, and libraries. And to be honest, you probably won't read most of books you downloaded anyway. It is just a waste of your time in the end. At least if you buy it, you will only buy those you are going to read.
    - neonological 6y ago
      Why should anyone take responsibility for what they do? There's no obligation for anyone to do that. Some people feel like they should take responsibility, others feel nothing at all. I'm not poor, far from it, yet I still use stremio to stream movies just as conveniently as netflix without paying a dime. It's wrong. There is no way to justify what I'm doing. Yet me and many other people both in America and in China use the app without the need for justification. Don't think that the guilt you feel is something other people feel. I can assure you I feel nothing. It's unfortunate, I recognize it's wrong, but at the same time... I don't actually care. You can vote me down, but I'm being candid here. There are tons of people like me and most of them won't be candid about there apathy towards piracy, so this is a window into our mindset if you're a person who can't relate. If you want to make the world a better place you need to account for bad actors in any model because they can never be fully eliminated.
      - 6y ago

powerapple 6y ago

The reason you don't purchase games or movie or music is that you are poor. Your behaviour is mostly determined by your financial status. I am a Chinese, and I haven't used pirated software since I started my first job. Of course, some people cheat, I hope they are not proud about it.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
neonological 6y ago
No I pirate because it makes economic sense and also because I feel no shame in doing so. Neither do the chinese. Having money doesn't prevent people from picking lower prices options. The cultural attitude I talk about dominates most of the culture in china. You walk into shenzhen not only is software pirated but entire phones, products and hardware is pirated and sold publicly. It's completely normal in china. Not to mention many people are proud of their own businesses. Whatever your experience is I feel you're telling it from within some social strata that is largely different from the rest of china and this is only a minority opinion. Like the author I say this in the most non judgmental way possible.
- powerapple 6y ago
  No, there are iPhone assembled from parts, I won't call it pirated. And people who buy those phones because they cannot afford it. It is very different from what you are doing. And the worst part of your story is that you attribute what you did to something not yours, so you don't have to take the responsibility of your own behavior. It is wrong. Look at the iPhone sales figure from Apple, and look at android sales numbers. And you are trying to suggest that "the rest of China" buys a counter fake iPhone? You are either dishonest or you know nothing about China.
  - neonological 6y ago
    > No, there are iPhone assembled from parts, I won't call it pirated. And people who buy those phones because they cannot afford it. It is very different from what you are doing. And the worst part of your story is that you attribute what you did to something not yours, so you don't have to take the responsibility of your own behavior. It is wrong. Some are legit parts. Many are pirated. There's even android phones sold under the apple brand with a reskinned android OS. You 100% don't know what you're talking about at all. You want proof? Watch it: https://youtu.be/e4wbFdePb-k?t=278 https://youtu.be/e4wbFdePb-k?t=278 The more you watch the more educated you'll be. >Look at the iPhone sales figure from Apple, and look at android sales numbers. And you are trying to suggest that "the rest of China" buys a counter fake iPhone? You are either dishonest or you know nothing about China. Yes. Dude. In China they have entire factories that build counterfeit stuff. >And the worst part of your story is that you attribute what you did to something not yours, so you don't have to take the responsibility of your own behavior. It is wrong. This is where you're wrong. I never admitted or justified what I was doing as right or wrong. In fact I think it's wrong. I'm human and I'm not perfect. I'm very capable of doing things that are wrong. The difference between you and me is that I don't have to lie to myself about the reality of what I'm doing. I don't have to justify it to myself. It's wrong, but I do it regardless without lying to myself. There are moral lines I don't cross, but I'm no boy scout. If you can't see that pirated goods are rampant in China than you're lying to yourself. Stop lying. Accept reality for what it is, don't let national pride blind you from the absolute truth.
1996 6y ago
I am Chinese too and like you, I usually don't bother with pirating since it's a lost of time. > I hope they are not proud about it. But like the parent post I have no shame or guilt in not paying for content. And I'm proud about being clever! It may be a mentality, as I do think people are stupid to pay for a DRM ebook while libgen has it without DRM. But if it takes more than 2 minutes to find it, I buy it.
- powerapple 6y ago
  Sometimes people don't take responsibility for what they do, they contribute it easily to other factors, such as culture, race or whatever. It is not likely everyone grow up to be responsible at the same age, one day you will change. You can have any excuse you want to have for now. I won't understand people working in the best paid industry and behave like this. For ebooks, there are scribd, kindle, oreiley, and libraries. And to be honest, you probably won't read most of books you downloaded anyway. It is just a waste of your time in the end. At least if you buy it, you will only buy those you are going to read.
  - neonological 6y ago
    Why should anyone take responsibility for what they do? There's no obligation for anyone to do that. Some people feel like they should take responsibility, others feel nothing at all. I'm not poor, far from it, yet I still use stremio to stream movies just as conveniently as netflix without paying a dime. It's wrong. There is no way to justify what I'm doing. Yet me and many other people both in America and in China use the app without the need for justification. Don't think that the guilt you feel is something other people feel. I can assure you I feel nothing. It's unfortunate, I recognize it's wrong, but at the same time... I don't actually care. You can vote me down, but I'm being candid here. There are tons of people like me and most of them won't be candid about there apathy towards piracy, so this is a window into our mindset if you're a person who can't relate. If you want to make the world a better place you need to account for bad actors in any model because they can never be fully eliminated.
    - 6y ago