Is making hard to get files more accessible always good practice (example in post body)? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 2 days ago by onesixone@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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Piracy in Germany often uses direct downloads via one click hosters(you get an url and download from there, people use services like rapidgator.net). These often get hit with copy right strikes and are slow to unusable for free users. Would downloading for example a TV show via this route and then creating a public torrent "good piracy"? (If anyone has a guide on how to create a torrent, pls share)

Reasons why I think it might be not so good:

the groups/people need a motivation to provide the content. Distributing it without their consent might reduce their motivation. They also probably paid for some subscription to get the content
in german context direct download links are often considered safer for people who just want to download, torrenting done wrong can get you pretty high legal fees (500+ €)
it feels like stealing somebody elses effort

Why I think about doing it:

this gives people another way to get the content
torrents are free to use and way faster than those one click hosters (which often give you less than 100kB/s)
the uploader usually profits via affiliate programs, so when someone buys a premium subscription of a one click hoster, they get a share. I think piracy shouldnt be done for profit
people (especially outside germany) might have it easier to access torrents instead oneclick hoster solutions
torrents have no captchas lol

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[-] BlueEther@no.lastname.nz 41 points 2 days ago

um...
"it feels like stealing somebody elses effort"
They have stolen somebody else's effort already - I hate people that righteous about 'stealing' of content that they have 'stolen'

[-] onesixone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Imo there is a reasonable difference between copying a product of a huge (and exploitative) company and taking the effort of hobbyist and just sharing it in ways they didnt intend.

For me* its the same when I shoplift, I dont steal from the local self-owned shop, I steal from the big multibillion company.

[-] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 days ago

And said multibillion dollar company doesn't give a shit. It is just the local store that has to deal with shrinkage. Which mostly just equates to profit numbers, likelihood to get their share of hot items, and so forth. Which, medium term, leads to even more shit going behind the locked doors and said store shutting down because nobody wants to find a sales associate so that they can buy toothpaste.

Like almost all things, the "I am morally righteous because I target this" just ignores that you are still fucking with individuals. Which is one of the biggest "strengths" of capitalism: The people taking the abuse aren't the oligarchs. It is your neighbors. And they are also the face of inconvenience when they actually try to advocate for their own rights.

So... how about you drop the "Doing X to A is righteous but doing it to B is bad" and consider growing up a bit and understanding that you are fucking people over either way. And decide how you feel about that. And, to be clear, nobody cares: You do you. Just understand what you are doing rather than focusing your energy on mental gymnastics because you can't stand to think you might do a bad/"bad".