4 ms·
A lot of piracy posts today. I think this is a fairly good take - for people with zero audience/reach piracy is a boon, for people with massive audience/reach
by umvi 5y ago
A lot of piracy posts today.
I think this is a fairly good take - for people with zero audience/reach piracy is a boon, for people with massive audience/reach piracy is a nuisance.
Either way, I think there are certain points where businesses have to protect their assets. If they didn't people would lose the sense of morality that they should pay for products the "legitimate" way if possible. And that sense of morality that most people have is the main thing that makes piracy not that big of a deal.
- ASalazarMX 5y agoPiracy made Microsoft Windows the dominant force that it is today, and that happened to many more. Last century shareware authors recognized the force of freely sharing to build up momentum, and it's not a coincidence that the most pirated content is from companies that stubbornly try to exert even more control over their markets.
- drewcoo 5y agoPiracy made Windows effectively free to home users so that put it on par with anything else that was free. On the other hand, Microsoft pushed IP ownership to sue competition. From Bill's "friendly letter" to the Homebrew Computer Club though that little spat with the US gov't, the company was constantly pushing the limits of how companies could profit from IP well beyond social norms of the time. "Piracy" is always, at best, a distraction from the real robbery happening. Cries of "piracy!" today are always a mask for corporate looting of the commons.