I feel similar about it. if I could buy straight MP4 or mkv files from somewhere, I would. even if you buy it on Apple, Google or whatever digital marketplace you don't really own it if it's still on their servers..

I just don't really feel the need to justify my piracy.

I watch pirate movies and tv and I don't feel a teeny tiny bit of remorse, nor interest in whether it's ethical.

You can get the files if you want, they're just very expensive and to the tune of hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars. Also they're typically encrypted and can only be played back on an approved projection system and you have to buy decryption keys every time you want to watch the movie. This is why theaters suck by the way, they have to pay for the movie, the ability to play the movie, the ability to take money in exchange for people seeing the movie, etc.

I fileshare because buying is renting nowadays, and I don't want to own content that can be revoked because of an expiring agreement, service shutting down, etc.

I find your take hilarious - that compiling a console game for PC would be trivial (and to support that very different platform) and that devs/publishers simply „refuse“ to do it.

Now, open source is a different topic and I can’t really estimate the effect it would have if it was standard across the industry.

(except for GOG that one time with a paltry selection of films)

Tell me about it.

It's really too bad more movie makers don't use GOG's platform.

I fileshare because I have been conditioned by private trackers to always keep my ratio at a 1:2 minimum to stay an active member.

I am much more worried about seeing some consequence for uploading than I am for downloading. They tend to go for distributors more than leechers.

I really enjoyed reading your take. Thanks for posting it. IP is theft.

I don't fileshare, I use usenet, don't wanna have to be constantly seeding isos. I like to rename and move my files onto my server not keep them on my cache drive.

You pirate because your country makes it difficult to get the content otherwise.

I pirate because i stopped giving a shit.

We are not the same.

I feel like "I'm making a personal choice to pirate because my deliberately-crafted use-case scenario is not being specifically catered to" is a worse argument than "I can't afford it".

distributors and publishers treating me as a second (or third) class citizen

This is like an F1 racer getting angry at 7-Eleven for not offering fuel that works for his supercar. You're not being treated as a second-class citizen; you've created a situation in which you are above first-class citizens, because you're using what is, these days, niche and specialized hardware that is far outside of the norm, but for some reason you're still shopping at the gas station the rest of us peons go to.