Hi guys, first of all, I fully support Piracy. But Im writing a piece on my blog about what I might considere as “Ethical Piracy” and I would like to hear your concepts of it.

Basically my line is if I have the capacity of paying for something and is more convinient that pirating, ill pay. It happens to me a lot when I wanna watch a movie with my boyfriend. I like original audio, but he likes dub, so instead of scrapping through the web looking for a dub, I just select the language on the streaming platform. That is convinient to me.

In what situations do you think is not OK to pirate something? And where is 100 justified and everybody should sail the seas instead?

I would like to hear you.

  • majestictechie@lemmy.fosshost.com
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    1 year ago
    1. When the content is no longer available for retail purchase (i.e old games or shows that have been pulled entirely [see Infinity Train])
    2. You have a physical copy, but want a digital version.
  • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    Any piracy related to scientific papers I consider ethical. That kind of knowledge should NEVER be hidden behind a paywall

    Abandonware is a very clear cut case of ethical piracy, too. Without it, a lot of digital stuff “wouldn’t exist” anymore. Mainly games, but also loads of productivity programs, doubly so for discontinued platforms, like Amiga computers.

  • ThatGuy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    When I can’t buy it in a reasonable way lol

    Simply wanting to save money is a valid enough reason to pirate. The only time you should have any second thoughts is if its a product you REALLY want to see more of or if its made by a smaller group that could really use that money.

    Even then though, you can always help without spending money. Easiest way is to spread the word.

    You enjoyed that game?

    Tell others its a good game worth getting. In many cases, that might help more than buying the game and saying nothing about it.

  • pocolaton@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Most people here arguing that the “ethical side” of piracy is when the media is not available elsewhere. Or if it’s available but at an abusive price/requirements. To which I agree.

    But I also believe that culture shouldn’t be only for those who can afford it. Books, movies, videogames, tvshows, education, science is what makes a society culturally rich. This is exactly why we have libraries. It’s a public service. I’ve seen teens become avid consumers and incredibly knowledgeable in certain subjects, to the point that they are making a living because of it. Because the internet allow them to explore and grow. Without a pricetag nor preassure on their families.

    Heck! Even I pirated almost everything in my teen years. Nowdays I pay for a lot of media. Don’t get me wrong, we should be supporting artists. Always. If possible.

    If it’s not possible, go ahead just pirate it. Piracy it’s just the best digital library in history. With a heavy euphemism attached: “piracy” (the act of attacking ships in order to sack them, kill people, rape people). It has a bad connotation on purpose. Don’t fall for it.

    Edit: punctuation

  • itsAsin@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    i have downloaded tens of thousands of dollars of audio recording software. i always told myself that, if i were to ever make money from my efforts and usage thereof, i would be happy to pay the author.

    i never made any money. but i hope the right people got paid by those that did.

  • Auriel@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    If it is not available to buy anywhere for me and the only way is piracy, I feel like piracy is justified. No one loses anything on this scenario.

  • dog@suppo.fi
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    1 year ago
    1. Content that you cannot acquire by any “lawful” means.
    2. Content that you already own a copy of (Yes, this includes “only” having a “license” to it; you own what you own).
    3. Content that is outrageously priced, and/or from large companies where the people who worked on the product will receive nothing from sold copies. (EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, etc)
      • glad_cat@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        Most TV shows in foreign countries, and a billion movies are like this. Since they refuse to take my money, I can’t feel guilty for getting it for free.

  • GodOfThunder@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    There should be a way to pay only the workers when you buy something. In that case, you could pay them but only after pirating and making sure you enjoy it. Since there is nothing like that, I think you should pay only content from small creators. Big creators already have plenty, and paying for anything else just gives money to greedy executives who then lower the quality of the content to make more money. Of course, if you have the means and don’t pay anything, you are just making sure there will be less of that content made in the future. It isn’t scalable; if everybody pirated content without paying a single cent, there would be no content made except by hobbyists who don’t want to make a living out of it.

    • Serinus@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I know someone who’s pirated books and then donated directly to the author or signed up for their Patreon for a few months.

      • GodOfThunder@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Oh yeah I was thinking more along the lines of video games or movies where there are too many people creating it. For books, etc you can definitely donate.

  • BaumGeist@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    It is always justified to pirate something. Private property is a scam, and intellectual property even more so; there is no justification for these concepts that does not boil down to “because the current dominant economic paradigm requires them in order to function” or “possessions are more important than people.” Information should always be free. Period.

    • b_n@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Just hypothetically, someone walks into your house, picks up a table and leaves with it. What do you do?

      • BaumGeist@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Why? What’s his motivation? Does he really need a table that badly, or is he just the living embodiment of an unrealistic hypothetical being used to justify a flawed system?

  • ram@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Any instance in which I’m purchasing through a publisher or producer. Wherein I have no reasonable belief that my money is actually going to the people who developed the work.

    • flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Do just to dig into this a little, I’m assuming that’s the Apple itunes, Spotify, Amazon etc levels and probably ticketek, we’re it plausible (now there’s a fantasy!!).

      Where do you sit with regards to the better players such as bandcamp or gog.com?

      • ram@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        It really depends on the particular developer right? Like, CDPR for example, whose parent company owns gog.com, pays its employees based on contractual obligation and initial sales. Beyond that, however, all money gets fed into the publisher and into the pockets of executives. Executives don’t make games. Executives do next to nothing and make nothing for it. I personally consider it patently unethical to support parasites like that.

        • flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          I completely agree to the pyramid scheme of managers.

          I’d like to believe they funded the development while it was happening, but I suspect that’s rather naiive…