Can Software Piracy Be Justified? (www.youtube.com)

submitted 4 days ago by db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

88 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] sad_detective_man@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 days ago

why is anyone still trying to justify piracy? that's step 2 of a conversation that even non-criminals are on step 9 in

[-] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

Believe it or not, I've met people like this. I know a guy who was worried about showing a movie to our Meetup group.

Not because he was afraid of getting caught. He thought it might be unethical.

[-] sad_detective_man@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 days ago

it's crazy how worried normal everyday people are worried about accidentally hurting the feelings of corporations. especially post-covid.

[-] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

To be fair, I think it's because they equate it with stealing. The propaganda works. Most people think that stealing is wrong, and media corporations have put a lot of money into convincing people that filesharing = stealing. Hell, even people who are okay with filesharing call it "piracy", because that's the corporate framing they were brought up with. (Just look at the name of this sub.)

Richard Stallman calls this out in this essay:

The term "piracy" is used by record companies to demonize sharing and cooperation by equating them to kidnaping, murder and theft.

I mean, yes, I enjoy saying "yarr", and "yo-ho-ho", and all the rest of it, but I have to admit that's the result of a successful propaganda campaign. Before people called it "piracy", they called it "filesharing". And, of course, that was a problem, because everybody knows that sharing is good and should be encouraged; but piracy is evil and should be stopped.