I know this sounds like a very stretched analogy at first glance, but it’s like a baker trying to prosecute people for smelling their products from outside. But if you think about it, these media companies are literally sending their information out into the air and getting upset when people just listen to that information. Like a smell, internet data is just out there in the air and it’s just unreasonable to prosecute people for either smelling or downloading stuff that’s permeating the atmosphere. Maybe tape recording radio songs is a tighter analogy but it’s the same idea.

Piracy is good, actually.

Come back when games become 1) strictly drm-free no launchers no nothing 2) more affordable worldwide 3) not subject to artificial obsolescence, then we can talk.

Copyright laws are the perfect example on how our economic system is flawed. How can you pretend to get money on the abstract concept of someone copying some bites on their computer.

Practicing piracy shows the way for a better system.

Each time I torrent I murmur “This is the way”.

Support creators through word of mouth (telling other people to pirate it)? There’s no one approach, but basically pay if I’m willing to, pirate if I’m not, and sometimes pirate even if I’ve paid because the experience is better.

Mostly, because DRM sucks, especially on wine. But the other reasons are also good.

Somewhere in between the bottom two.

📑

I am at step 3, but if you only start piracy when it is already gone, well then it is already gone…

So we have to archive earlier to avoid lost media as well as start seeding earlier to ensure redundancy to avoid lost media

In my opinion, it is very important to give our history of art to the future of humanity. Proactive piracy is the only way to achieve this in times of sudden complete delistings and removal of access to already bought games.

Private property is theft.

Got another option:

Copos had a chance to stop piracy. Netflix demonstrated that. A full all-you-can-watch buffet for €10 a month with everything you need available caused piracy to all but disappear.

Then they got greedy.

Piracy is just as much of a natural result of asshole pricing and market fragmentation as unionization and strikes are a natural result of employers being assholes and underpaying.

I wish piracy was stealing, because stealing from the rich is good

I’m in between 3 and 4: both copyright and copying are amoral (they are just tools), but copyright as it exists today is obsolete, arguably to the point that it actively hinders the betterment of humankind.

If I didn’t get into so many niche genres of music through piracy in the 00s, I’d not have a vinyl collection worth the same as a lower end luxury car today.