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> Internet piracy isn’t ethically justifiable Is it not? What about when a company like Sony pulls millions of purchased digital content without a refund? Wha

> Internet piracy isn’t ethically justifiable Is it not? What about when a company like Sony pulls millions of purchased digital content without a refund? What about when discovery pulls a whole lot of content so they can write it off? What about when companies push for digital only releases without a way to physically own the content? No, piracy isn't just ethical, it is the only way one can ensure they actually own what they buy.

zxt_tzx 3y ago
To spell out what I think you're saying, the way to be ethical and have ownership is to pay for the content and then download a version of it so that you both supported the creator and have a copy of what you paid for.
- TremendousJudge 3y ago
  But then you're a criminal anyway?
BLKNSLVR 3y ago
cough Hollywood accounting cough
flkenosad 3y ago
Not to mention archiving. I trust anon pirates to keep content unaltered and available more than any single centralized organization.
- HideousKojima 3y ago
  Like how the only way to watch the Michael Jackson episode of the Simpsons is to either buy secondhand copies of the DVDs, or pirate.
  - BLKNSLVR 3y ago
    Let's not mention the original cuts of Star Wars. Pirates are (involuntary) archivists.
bogwog 3y ago
It's the only thing that keeps intellectual property in check. Without the option, publishers just have a legal monopoly. When piracy increases, it means consumers are unhappy.
RajT88 3y ago
There are many ways to look at piracy. You can make a case for ethical use cases, for sure, as you've done. Piracy as a valuable tool for archival. You can also make a case, not based on ethics, but to think about it as a way of consumers exercising control over their media consumption. If they don't like what's on offer from the big media companies (who exploit everyone in the production chain so enrich the execs and investors) then they can go somewhere else. With enough piracy, media companies are forced to provide a better deal. This is what lead to the creation of Netflix, and what led Apple to use their considerable market forces to get the industry behind DRM-free music. I think we can all agree that some balance of power between corporate behemoths and their customers is a good thing. In this model, piracy is actually a competitor in the media industry. You are competing for those customers. I think Netflix really understood this at the beginning, and it got gigantic by basically stealing customers from pirate sites. Let's take another perspective to present on argument on whether or not to pirate media: Pirated media, like a lot of illicit activities which takes place outside official channels presents a security risk. Never pirate any kind of software! This is how some of the great tragedies happen in infosec. I recall hearing some stories from security folks, about breaches which started as employees downloading cracks and keygens for photoshop and the like on work machines. Jesus H. Christ on a cracker. Music and movies, for savvy users, is significantly more safe since for the most part, those media files don't (or can't) contain executable code. There are edge cases, like abandonware where it is impossible sometimes to purchase the software you are looking for, and abandonware is relatively safe in the scheme of things. Another argument: The socio-economic class argument. If you are not wealthy enough to afford what wealthier people (or people from wealthier nations) are paying for, it's OK to pirate it. It's harming no-one, as you were never going to be a paying customer in the first place. In some cases, whatever media may be impossible to legally purchase in your country. There's also the techno-libertarian/pirate party perspective of "Information wants to be free", but honestly that's getting a bit abstract and I can't articulate well that perspective in a way that makes sense to me if you're talking about music and TV shows. Software though - reverse engineering software, and making your own version, I can get behind and it makes sense. What I won't do is share which of these perspectives I live by, or tell you which perspectives you should live by (other than that second one: For god's sake don't pirate software for your own good). The "don't pirate software" was a talking point I recently wrote down in a Readme.txt for my nephews who are getting their first gaming PC's for Christmas (from myself and my brother).

zxt_tzx 3y ago

To spell out what I think you're saying, the way to be ethical and have ownership is to pay for the content and then download a version of it so that you both supported the creator and have a copy of what you paid for.

TremendousJudge 3y ago
But then you're a criminal anyway?

BLKNSLVR 3y ago

cough Hollywood accounting cough

flkenosad 3y ago

Not to mention archiving. I trust anon pirates to keep content unaltered and available more than any single centralized organization.

HideousKojima 3y ago
Like how the only way to watch the Michael Jackson episode of the Simpsons is to either buy secondhand copies of the DVDs, or pirate.
- BLKNSLVR 3y ago
  Let's not mention the original cuts of Star Wars. Pirates are (involuntary) archivists.

bogwog 3y ago

It's the only thing that keeps intellectual property in check. Without the option, publishers just have a legal monopoly. When piracy increases, it means consumers are unhappy.

RajT88 3y ago

There are many ways to look at piracy. You can make a case for ethical use cases, for sure, as you've done. Piracy as a valuable tool for archival. You can also make a case, not based on ethics, but to think about it as a way of consumers exercising control over their media consumption. If they don't like what's on offer from the big media companies (who exploit everyone in the production chain so enrich the execs and investors) then they can go somewhere else. With enough piracy, media companies are forced to provide a better deal. This is what lead to the creation of Netflix, and what led Apple to use their considerable market forces to get the industry behind DRM-free music. I think we can all agree that some balance of power between corporate behemoths and their customers is a good thing. In this model, piracy is actually a competitor in the media industry. You are competing for those customers. I think Netflix really understood this at the beginning, and it got gigantic by basically stealing customers from pirate sites. Let's take another perspective to present on argument on whether or not to pirate media: Pirated media, like a lot of illicit activities which takes place outside official channels presents a security risk. Never pirate any kind of software! This is how some of the great tragedies happen in infosec. I recall hearing some stories from security folks, about breaches which started as employees downloading cracks and keygens for photoshop and the like on work machines. Jesus H. Christ on a cracker. Music and movies, for savvy users, is significantly more safe since for the most part, those media files don't (or can't) contain executable code. There are edge cases, like abandonware where it is impossible sometimes to purchase the software you are looking for, and abandonware is relatively safe in the scheme of things. Another argument: The socio-economic class argument. If you are not wealthy enough to afford what wealthier people (or people from wealthier nations) are paying for, it's OK to pirate it. It's harming no-one, as you were never going to be a paying customer in the first place. In some cases, whatever media may be impossible to legally purchase in your country. There's also the techno-libertarian/pirate party perspective of "Information wants to be free", but honestly that's getting a bit abstract and I can't articulate well that perspective in a way that makes sense to me if you're talking about music and TV shows. Software though - reverse engineering software, and making your own version, I can get behind and it makes sense. What I won't do is share which of these perspectives I live by, or tell you which perspectives you should live by (other than that second one: For god's sake don't pirate software for your own good). The "don't pirate software" was a talking point I recently wrote down in a Readme.txt for my nephews who are getting their first gaming PC's for Christmas (from myself and my brother).