The ability to change features, prices, and availability of things you’ve already paid for is a powerful temptation to corporations.

  • Rough_N_Ready@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Piracy was never stealing. It’s copyright infringement, but that’s not the same as stealing at all. People saying it’s stealing have always been wrong.

    • gapbetweenus@feddit.de
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      2 years ago

      One of the great modern scams, was to convince society that unauthorized copying of data is somehow equivalent to taking away a physical object.

      • Coasting0942@reddthat.com
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        2 years ago

        Jesus didn’t ask for permission to copy bread and fish. It’s a clear moral precedent that if you can copy you should.

        What would the Jesus do?

        Checkmate Atheists!

            • gapbetweenus@feddit.de
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              2 years ago

              You seem to not understand what the word own means and the difference between material and not material goods.

                • gapbetweenus@feddit.de
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                  2 years ago

                  I have a thing and than someone takes it away, so I can’t use it anymore. If somebody copies that thing - it’s not really theft.

                  My point is more - concepts from physical world don’t nessessary apply to digital world.

                  • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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                    2 years ago

                    It just seems that what you are saying is that people shouldn’t be paid if their work doesn’t create something physical.

            • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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              2 years ago

              I love how you guys play these mental gymnastics to justify this shit to yourselves.

              I love how you bootlickers always deny that anyone could possibly have a principled objection to modern intellectual property laws. I don’t need to “justify” at all. I rarely even pirate anything, but I don’t believe I’m doing anything wrong when I do.

            • merc@sh.itjust.works
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              2 years ago

              Intellectual property is not a thought that you own. It’s an idea

              Ah, it’s an idea, not a thought. Gotcha. Glad you cleared that up.

              Something that actually takes time to make, often a whole lot of time.

              Who the fuck cares? Dinner also takes a great deal of time to make.

              Something you never would have dedicated as much time to if you couldn’t be compensated for it.

              That’s not true. People have been telling stories and creating art since humanity climbed down from the trees. Compensation might encourage more people to do it, but there was never a time that people weren’t creating, regardless of compensation. In addition, copyright, patents and trademarks are only one way of trying to get compensation. The Sistine chapel ceiling was painted not by an artist who was protected by copyright, but by an artist who had rich patrons who paid him to work.

              Maybe “Meg 2: The Trench” wouldn’t have been made unless Warner Brothers knew it would be protected by copyright until 2143. But… maybe it’s not actually necessary to give that level of protection to the expression of ideas for people to be motivated to make them. In addition, maybe the harms of copyright aren’t balanced by the fact that people in 2143 will finally be able to have “Meg 2: The Trench” in the public domain.

              • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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                2 years ago

                Why should an artist not be paid but a gardener or someone who build your house is supposed to be paid?

                After all, humans build stuff and make stuff with plants without compensation all the time.

                You just sound like a Boomer who thinks work is only work when the product isn’t entertaining or art.

            • aylex@lemm.ee
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              2 years ago

              “Something you never would have dedicated as much time to if you couldn’t be compensated for it.”

              Just telling on yourself 😂

        • merc@sh.itjust.works
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          2 years ago

          Intellectual property is a scam, the term was invented to convince dumb people that a government-granted monopoly on the expression of an idea is the same thing as “property”.

          You can’t “steal” intellectual property, you can only infringe on someone’s monopoly rights.

            • TootGuitar@reddthat.com
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              2 years ago

              For someone who bitches all over this thread about people strawmanning their position, this is a pretty fucking great reply.

              Hint: one can be pissed about people throwing around the not-based-in-legal-reality term “intellectual property.” One can be pissed about people using it as part of a strategy to purposely confuse the public into thinking that copyright infringement is the same as theft, a strategy which has apparently worked mightily well on you. One can be all of those things, and yet still feel that copyright infringement is wrong and no one should be entitled to “literally everything someone else creates.”

              What you posted was a textbook definition of a straw man.

                • TootGuitar@reddthat.com
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                  2 years ago

                  I don’t know how the original poster meant it, but one possible way to interpret it (which is coincidentally my opinion) is that the concept of intellectual property is a scam, but the underlying actual legal concepts are not. Meaning, the law defines protections for copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets, and each of those has their uses and are generally not “scams,” but mixing them all together and packaging them up into this thing called intellectual property (which has no actual legal basis for its existence) is the scam. Does that make sense?

        • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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          2 years ago

          If no one thinks that, why are you saying it right now?

          Actual theft of intellectual property would involve somehow tricking the world into thinking you hold the copyright to something that someone else owns.

        • Cypher@aussie.zone
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          2 years ago

          The performers time is not infinitely reproducible so your argument is apples to oranges.

          • ominouslemon@lemm.ee
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            2 years ago

            But the time to create a novel, a videogame, or a news story is not infinitely reproducible, either. So when you are pirsting one of those things, you are actively reaping the benefits of someone’s time for free, like going to a concert without a ticket

            • Venia Silente@lemm.ee
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              2 years ago

              There’s a difference between the performer’s time to create not being infinitely reproducible, and an user’s time to use the product being or not infinitely reproducible. Whether I’m pirating or buying a TV show, the actors were already compensated for their time and use for the show; my payment for buying actually goes to the corporate fat: licensors, distributors, etc.

              Whereas when pay a ticket into a live concert, I’m actually paying for something to be made.

                • CybranM@feddit.nu
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                  2 years ago

                  It just magically appears /s Its disingenuous to try and justify piracy on the basis that the performers have already been paid. I don’t agree with studios either of course, customers are being scammed

              • ominouslemon@lemm.ee
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                2 years ago

                This only applies to cases where the artist/actor/whatever gets paid upfront. Most of the times, that does not happen. The creator of something only gets money when somebody buys what they have created (books, videogames, music, etc)

                • Katana314@lemmy.world
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                  2 years ago

                  Even if they were paid upfront, they were paid off the idea that the company could make bank on their (ready yourself for the word in case it triggers): Intellectual Property.

                  In a future world where people have achieved their wish and the concept no longer exists, companies have no reason to pay creators ahead of time.

        • gapbetweenus@feddit.de
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          2 years ago

          I don’t see anything wrong with paying for software or music or digital media. I don’t think that not doing so is theft - like I also don’t think that getting into a concert without paying is theft. By the way a concert is also not digital data, at least an irl one.

          • SCB@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            A library card is your ticket there and libraries are paid via taxes, which is why they’re free at point of use.

            Attending a free concert is not stealing. Breaking into the Eras tour is.

            • snooggums@kbin.social
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              2 years ago

              The library buys once and allows multiple people to read/watch each item without each person needing to individually purchase. Just like one person buying something and sharing it with others.

              The main point is that digitization distribution is not a concert

              • SCB@lemmy.world
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                2 years ago

                Digital distribution is a service. You can steal a service.

                If you fuck a prostitute and then don’t pay them, you are stealing from them.

                • snooggums@kbin.social
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                  2 years ago

                  If the prostitute uses a technique, and then you use the same technique without paying hem for reuse, is that stealing or does their direct involvement matter?

                  • sdoorex@slrpnk.net
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                    2 years ago

                    If you’re going to retype the code of a program from scratch, then your analogy is valid. If instead you are taking the production created through someone else’s labor without compensating them, then you are stealing from them.

                  • SCB@lemmy.world
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                    2 years ago

                    Prostitutes don’t become prostitutes because they know secret techniques.

                    The metaphor is describing the service provided, and that not paying for said service is indeed stealing.

                    Trying to make it a different metaphor requires a new framework from you, because you copying their actual service would be you pimping them, under this metaphor.

                • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one
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                  2 years ago

                  You’re not using their distribution service when you pirate something. That’s the whole point.

                • psud@aussie.zone
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                  2 years ago

                  It’s okay I won’t use their digital distribution system to pirate their stuff.

                  It’s just like falling to pay a prostitute you never fucked

          • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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            2 years ago

            Libraries get money via tax. What people here are arguing for is that others should work for them or free. Because game studios, for example, are overwhelmingly not paid via tax money. They are depending on people buying their software. And many software has ongoing costs.

        • psud@aussie.zone
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          2 years ago

          I have never had a problem with people taking a tape recorder to a concert, even if it’s against terms of service

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        I’m a software developer, and I endorse the grandparent comment.

        • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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          2 years ago

          And you all just were happy and bro fisted people who ignored the licensing terms?

          • grue@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            Yes.

            Well, not literally, both because I’m more inclined to “high five” and you can’t do either gesture over the Internet. But figuratively, yes.

            • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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              2 years ago

              Why don’t you just gift away your software than? That’s an honest question. You obviously aren’t expecting to be paid for it, do you think in general developers shouldn’t earn money with software or is it just you?

              • grue@lemmy.world
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                2 years ago

                Why don’t you just gift away your software than?

                Because I don’t make those decisions; my employer does. They ought to give it away, but they don’t.

                (The software I’ve worked on has tended to be either (a) tools for internal company use or (b) stuff used by the government/large companies where the revenue would definitely have come from a support contract even if the code itself were free.)

              • psud@aussie.zone
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                2 years ago

                The writer whose article is the subject of this post releases his books without DRM. He ends his podcast with a quote encouraging piracy. I found him because of an earlier book he released under a share alike licence

                He has found that piracy increases the reach of his message, and increases his sales

      • puttybrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 years ago

        If I made software that people cared enough about to crack and pirate, I’d be happy that it’s popular enough for that to happen.

        I am a software developer but I’ve only worked on SaAS and open source projects.

        • zerofk@lemm.ee
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          2 years ago

          I work on software which is pirated. It is even sold by crackers, who make money off my work. This does not make me proud.

          What does make me proud is when a paying customer says they love a specific feature, or that our software saves them a lot of manual work.

        • poopkins@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Pride unfortunately doesn’t pay the bills. It’s terrific that you contribute to open source, but not all commercial software can be open sourced.

          • psud@aussie.zone
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            2 years ago

            Popularity opens other ways to make money. Open source is profitable for GNU. Cory Doctorow does fine.

          • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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            Most people who work on open source projects have a lucrative job and work on Open Source on the side. I also volunteer, but I still need a job that actually pays me as well.

            Reading some of the comments here it feels like speaking to little children who believe money magically appears on their account.

        • aksdb@feddit.de
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          2 years ago

          Tell me which so I can develop a competing service and steal your userbase!

        • satan@r.nf
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          2 years ago

          I’d be happy that it’s popular enough for that to happen.

          of course you would. you would actually give them your house and wife, because you’re so proud now. right?

          • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            Ah yes, because downloading Shark_Tale.mp4 is exactly the same as someone taking your house away from you and obtaining your wife and owning her as personal property.

            Get some fucking perspective. I usually try to be polite online but this is just straight up moronic and you need to be told so bluntly.

      • iegod@lemm.ee
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        2 years ago

        You need to disconnect the badness with the term stealing because you’re just wrong. Yeah it’s ip infringement. Yes it’s illegal. Yes people are impacted. And still… Not stealing.

        • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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          2 years ago

          Yes I am. And the two companies I worked for both were small, offered their products for cheap and still had people pirating the modules or circumvent licensing terms. It’s a legit problem that a lot of people don’t see why they should pay for software simply because it’s sometimes easy to steal it.

          • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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            2 years ago

            circumvent licensing terms

            So to be clear: was it possible to purchase and own the software? Or did users have to pay a subscription for a license? Because personally I’m getting sick of every piece of software thinking it’s appropriate to require a subscription.

      • Rough_N_Ready@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        I have been for over 20 years actually! What do I get for winning the bet?

        Edit:

        One of our games we actually ended up supporting a form of piracy. A huge amount of our user base ended up using cheat tools to play our game which meant that they could get things that they would normally have to purchase with premium currency. Instead of banning them, we were careful to not break their cheat tools and I even had to debug why their cheat tool stopped working after a release.

        • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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          How did your employer pay your salaries? Or did your money perhaps came from those people who actually do pay for in-game currency in your games?