this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2024
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[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (7 children)

How does pirating make a corporation broke? Making a copy doesn't steal money.

Edit: We can't pirate a company into bankruptcy.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Because they keep whining that they're losing money /s

EDIT: added /s

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I have an automated setup that can torrent the same game 100000 times so I can make corporations go broke at the click of a button. Fear me

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

I have a collection of 10000 classic Nintendo games on an HDD so I can make Nintendo America file chapter 11. Fear me

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

We can’t pirate a company into bankruptcy because there are still people paying for the movies and games we download. If everyone pirated content, these companies would go bankrupt, and there would no longer be new content to pirate. Online pirates often justify their behavior by telling themselves a story about how they’re 'sticking it to the man,' but in reality, we’re just freeriders enjoying the fruits of others' labor. We’re leeches with no moral ground to stand on.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Well, they have to pay licensing fees for the media, pay crazy money for the IT infrastructure, which they have no matter how many downloads.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

You didn't pay up to enjoy the product. They lost revenue. But yes, it didn't "broke" the corporation.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This assumes I was going to buy it in the first place

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

You would if piracy wasn't an option. Maybe not all of it, but some of it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

They lost revenue

They lost HYPOTHETICAL revenue. Assuming that everyone who pirates a product would otherwise buy it is a textbook appeal to probability fallacy

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Unless "piracy" is your alternative to buying a brand new copy at launch, I don't wanna hear it.

If GameStop can make bank re-selling used games without giving back a cent to the developer, how is doing the same for free, without taking up competitive retail space any worse?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Because the copy sold by GameStop was already paid for to the publisher.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

So was the install I made a copy of and gave to a friend. Either way the publisher makes the same amount.

Sure there might be a limited number of used copies, but when you're talking about a mass manufactured product with limited demand like a random used game, then yeah, might as well be unlimited. How many used copies of GTA V or Skyrim out there do you think there are? Answer: far more than there are people looking to buy them, and each one of those copies can be sold an infinite amount of times.

The only games that are so rare that this matters are either so expensive or so hard to come by that everyone is okay with pirating them anyways because there's no reasonable way to obtain them, and they're all usually out of print any who.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

it's okay to pirate rare games because there are so few of them

it's okay to pirate common games because there are so many of them

Look, I'm all for piracy and against copyright, but you can simply admit you like free stuff without finding twisted explanations to justify it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Most people have a hard time swallowing the fact that they're nothing but bottom tier leeches.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I say this as someone who buys their games because they don't trust cracked executables.

Granted I have a collection of complete romsets, but I also have three bookshelves of physical games from the Nintendo Switch all the way back to the 2600 (even have a coupla pong consoles.)

Between all that, the hundreds/thousands I've spent on band camp, and the monthly donations to patron creators, free software projects, and the internet archive? Yeah I must be a freeloader lmao. There's a million reasons piracy is ethically correct. Copyright needs to fucking die.

You want bottom tier leeches? Go look to the capitalist owning class that tried to redefine sharing as piracy in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I have an orchard full of mirabelle plum trees. I keep some of the production for personal consumption and to hand out to friends and family, and sell the rest.

On average, I make back all the money invested in tools and other farming products halfway through the gathering season.

According to you, it's ok if someone comes and steal my fruit after that then?

Imagine calling someone else a leech when you are literally promoting theft because you have decided that after an arbitrary amount of time (2 months, apparently), it's all paid for.

I buy games because it's the right thing to do. Not because I am afraid.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

This hypothetical is a false equivalence as fruit is a physical good. Digital media can be copied ad nauseum without the owner losing access to their copy.

When someone steals your fruit, its not just that they have fruit and you didn't get money, its that you no longer have any of your fruit.

A better metaphor is if someone bought your fruit, buried the seeds, grew their own plum tree, and started giving away the fruit that they grew.

Also call it being afraid, but I don't have shame in being security conscious. Not that I run games outside of a controlled VM, but anyone who would run a cracked exe that uses a closed source implementation is fucking asking for it. Only software crack I've ever trusted was massgrave for activating windows/office.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The fruits themselves are an accessory to my argument, the fact you chose to criticize this minute detail, and not the actual argument (you deciding that someone has made enough money and therefore it's ok to enjoy the fruits of their labor for free) is quite telling.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Its not a minute detail lmao, it throws the entire argument. In one instance you're stealing a physical good. In another you're making a one-to-one copy of a piece of information. Information that exists on MY physical storage medium, using MY bits that I physically own.

You specifically chose that metaphor knowing this. Don't try and gaslight me with that shit.

Just because you're wrong doesn't mean you have to argue in bad faith, sweety. <3

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh my god you are denser than a box of rocks.

The fruits are basically infinite as long as the tree stands. In fact, I throw many of the fruits away every year because I can't sell them fast enough. The fruits are accessory to the argument.

In one instance you say that someone makes enough money therefore there's no need to reward them further for their work, in the other you say wait no that's different because bullshit reasons.

Just say you're ok with stifling creative people because you don't believe the deserve to live off of their hard work.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Just say you're ok with stifling creative people because you don't believe the deserve to live off of their hard work.

Just admit you're too dense to see the difference between pirating a piece of media owned by a corporation who's no longer giving money to the artists for said creation, and a smaller artist/group of artists who survive directly off of their work.

But yeah tell me more about how the indie dev who spends hundreds a month on tiny band camp artists doesn't give a shit about creative because I refuse to pay $40 for flacs of a classic rock album when indie artists can do the same thing for $8. Despite the $8 purchase actually going to artists and not record label execs/shareholders.

Furthermore, you growing fruit takes resources and time. I can make thousands of copies of a file in a single keystroke. Again, the more apt metaphor would be me buying fruit, using that to grow my own, and giving that away. Even then its not exact.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Furthermore, you growing fruit takes resources and time.

Meanwhile, artistic creation just happens.

Lmao you're such a leech. Only a leech believes art takes no effort and no time. This single line in your entire argument demonstrates that you do not value creativity, and therefore you think you aren't required to pay your share.

In other words, you're a leech.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Look if you're just going to take single lines from a multi-paragraph reply out of context to fuel your bad faith arguments, you can go bite one.

The fact that you repeatedly call me a leech is very telling. It says to us that you're interested in finding excuses to put strangers in a box so you can feel better about yourself.

Maybe go out and find something about yourself to actually like, instead of this upstanding citizen bullshit, because its a very thin veneer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh, I feel pretty good about myself all of the time. I find life rather enjoyable, as I do not need to write down 45 paragraphs in order to justify some sort of shitty behavior like you need to.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I don't argue with people to justify my actions, silly goose, I do it to satisfy my neurotic compulsion to tell dipshits why they're wrong. Because unlike you, I know my faults. <3

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

And yet, you've spent countless paragraphs justifying how it's ok for you to be a leech

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

So long as everyone who wants to play a game can purchase it used, its functionally no different than piracy. Except someone who did no work makes money off of it.

If a game can't be easily legally obtained, if at all, its a pretty common belief that piracy is justified in the name of preservation.

The only exceptions to this are new releases which haven't reached critical mass, and smaller releases which will never reach any sort of mass following.

The former is especially important when you realize that two months post-launch of a new piece of media, the company has made back the artist saleries, and everything after that is just bonus for the useless vultures upstairs.

[–] where_am_i 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

In fact, you're helping them promote their stuff. E.g. everyone is watching that TV show and it's all your friends are talking about. Now you have to do it too.

If instead of pirating you'd be like "I think it's extremely expensive to pay a subscription fee for this low tier content, so instead I've been reading X". Maybe you'd convice someone to join you. But for now you're just reinforcing the media monopoly.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Don't read X, read Mastodon /s

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So now i should stop doing everything involving a digital subscription that's fun just to stick it to the corpos? I don't know if I'm misunderstanding your argument

[–] where_am_i 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You want to portrait yourself as an anti-corpo warrior. But all you're doing is making corpo content a mainstream monopoly, and through that they will eventually find a way to make someone pay for it.

You will only make corpos go broke if you actually spend some money on alternative content. Meaning that content will get better, and there will be some follower base to enjoy that content with.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I guess i can see the appeal of that idea if you're willing to give up the variety of content you would otherwise have access to by sticking with corporations. I think Lemmy is a good example of this idea. I just can't find it within me to give up the massive amounts of content available to me particularly when it comes to gaming and film.

I mean think about it. I won't play GTA6 so as not to contribute to the oligopoly Rockstar games is associated with. I mean i get your point - small changes make big differences right? - but it's not always feasible to abandon all the good stuff that's out there all in an effort to promote individual innovation.

[–] where_am_i 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I will pay for their single player if reasonable, I'll probably pirate cuz their shitty online tracking made GTA5 not even worth playing legally for free. A pirated version would've worked much better and wouldn't require their fkn launcher social club disaster.

But absolutely surely I'll know I'm not an anti-corpo warrior. Just a tiny rebel insignificant enough to ignore. And I only matter a tiny bit, because I actually would've bought their game if it was on GOG.

And if everyone always bought on GOG only, you'd see a much, much stronger presence on that platform.

Till then their answer to you will be "hey you've been playing this game and your friends did too, well in order to play together it's 10$/months, good luck pirating that".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

How are you this naive? You know someone has to pay the developers a salary right? How would corporations pay them if nobody bought the game and instead pirated?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Yeah you gotta support the corporations financially so the game can be successful and they can go on to lay off all their developers anyway.

Remember Tango Studios?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

They pay out of initial capital investment and leveraging.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

~~They're paid a salary as the game development goes on?~~

EDIT: I was confused