What if you’re pirating to avoid agreeing to an EULA that lets a giant corporation murder your family members?
Yeah, that lawsuit from last week is also why I started pirating 20 years ago.
Try the Sony BMG Rootkit, contained on music CDs:
In 2005 it was revealed that the implementation of copy protection measures on about 22 million CDs distributed by Sony BMG installed one of two pieces of software that provided a form of digital rights management (DRM) by modifying the operating system to interfere with CD copying. Neither program could easily be uninstalled, and they created vulnerabilities that were exploited by unrelated malware. One of the programs would install and “phone home” with reports on the user’s private listening habits, even if the user refused its end-user license agreement (EULA), while the other was not mentioned in the EULA at all. Both programs contained code from several pieces of copylefted free software in an apparent infringement of copyright, and configured the operating system to hide the software’s existence, leading to both programs being classified as rootkits.
I have a few of those CD’s. They also have copy protection to keep people from copying the CD’s. It doesn’t work.
You can’t really have effective copy protection on any disc that can be played in a basic CD player; they’re just too simple.
So Sony’s approach was to put an autorun installer for a ‘music player’ on the disk too. If installed, it attempted to lock your CD drive from being used by any other software and couldn’t be easily uninstalled. And they pirated open-source software (yes, that’s possible) to build it.
SMH My Head.
Even if it did we’s still find a way to copy it. I copy Ultra HD-Blu-rays I purchase to my hdd as a backup. DRM only serves to punish those who actually spend money on media.
Oh, indeed. I’m just pointing out that terrible & illegal DRM is hardly a new practice.
Then you’re violating the law! Just agree to the 40 page legalese text as if you were on an equal footing.
- Let your personal pet lawyer read it if you can’t.
- Don’t forget to read every change to them, because every EULA allows the vendor to change parts of the EULA at any time.
- Enjoy having fewer rights to the bought stuff than a pirate does, because the EULA makes you waive them. Or will make you waive them.
I’m over here pirating things because I don’t want to pay for them but I’ll probably never watch/play them. Which side of the image am I?
Lagolas, Destroyer of Bandwidth.
Gameli, a little short on time to actually play the plunder
I guess if you aren’t consuming then you must just really enjoy the theft aspect of it. You’re on the right
Once unskippable warnings and ads appeared on DVDs I bought, I became a lost cause.
ON DVDs??? No way they did that… Jeez…
It’s just a better product.
Yup, if you present me a side-by-side of the free one and the paid one when the free one is better even disregarding costs, I’m pirating 100% of the time.
- “Oh, you’ll only have access to this as long as our servers remain online or as long as we keep renewing the license.”
- “Sorry, your device needs to phone home to use this.”
- “Don’t you love ads in your paid product?”
- “You’ll need to juggle several different services if you want what you can otherwise get for free on a central hub.”
- “Yes, you can only use this on one or two devices at a time thanks to DRM.”
- “Fuck you, you’ll need an account with us to use this even though you bought it without that account somewhere else.”
- “This thing’s only ongoing cost on our end is version updates you totally need and want, so it’ll be an indefinite subscription (which we’ll make a pain in the ass to cancel).”
- “This game runs noticeably worse because of the shitty DRM we shoehorned in.”
- “You’re saying you don’t like being spied on for ad targeting?”
- “You can only get this bundled with a bunch of other bullshit you don’t want and would never pay for individually.”
- “Our UI that you’re forced to interact with to use this is fucking garbage.”
- “We don’t sell this anymore; ask Scalper4478 on eBay.”
- “We use the money that you pay us to lobby against your rights as a consumer.”
- “We somehow lack QoL features that the free version has.”
You’ll need to juggle several different services if you want what you can otherwise get for free on a central hub.
This one, while common, I kind of take issue with. You’re basically complaining that there is no one, all-consuming media oligarchy that owns EVERY show/movie, and distributes it on their singular massively overpriced service (and yes, with that market stranglehold, they would massively overprice it)
Shouldn’t the principle of competition mean there are multiple services, each trying to present better content? People reasonably contend with only being subscribed to a few they care about - I don’t know who is assuming they should get access to all media, all the time, without paying truckloads of money.
I will grant that for games, no service beats Steam, but I will absolutely buy games from other platforms like Itch and GOG in the spirit of competition when their prices or better or the dev has avoided Steam for reasons of adult content censorship.
Interesting that you pick GOG and Itch as examples, because I have all my gemes from these platforms available Through Lutris in a central interface. And it works well because Lutris can, provided my login info, just download and install the games without needing any extra services.
I made that point short to be pithy, but what I actually take issue with in there being so many streaming services is that:
- Upfront transparency for what shows and movies are actually there, let alone in what state, is often incredibly limited. This isn’t inherent to there being multiple services, but when I haven’t found one whose experience isn’t profoundly shitty, I’m counting it against them.
- Even if you accurately assess which subscriptions you need at first, that can collapse at any time because shows are treated as playing cards, and you often need to put ongoing effort beyond just paying money into maintaining that list. (I often watch shows over months or years instead of binging them, and this is super shitty under a streaming service.)
- Even if you have all those subscriptions and maintain them well, there’s no place to centrally view their content, something which cable TV – for what a piece of shit it was – shockingly made easier than streaming. If I purchase half my games from Steam and half from GOG, I can still access what I buy from a shared location: my desktop. If I purchase a bunch of discs from multiple different vendors, it’s all centralized on my DVD rack. The UI is consistent (and even slightly quicker to access). This isn’t massive, but it’s still objectively a point against them.
- Unlike the PC gaming landscape where games are often available across multiple stores, streaming services are becoming increasingly exclusivity-focused, and this happens because there’s such an oligopoly in the TV and film industry, and basically every member of that oligopoly now runs a streaming service.
I don’t think the point should be that there should be one streaming service to rule them all, but that in their current state, they represent an objectively substantial downgrade to piracy even taking away costs.
Nah. We need legal protection to separate content creators and distributiors. Creator’s license content. Laws could mandate all distributors get access to the same pricing. Then you pick the distribution platform you enjoy.
Creator’s compete for views with quality content.
Distributors compete for users with features and curation.
No exclusive rights. No studio running a streaming platform. No streaming platform starting up studios. None of this anticompetitive lock-in.
I don’t even know if I disagree with that approach, but how would you mandate equal pricing? The relationship between producer and content distributor today is normally based on length of time and the general size of the audience, like “$2 million to distribute in these five countries for the next year”
For that matter, given how much media is produced internationally, how would you set up every country to agree on terms simultaneously?
I’m in favor of a system that empowers creators, but I’m also aware they tend to only get funding from big publishers with big expectations on return (including licensing rights). A system without lock-in contracts may just mean no one helps them create their vision.
Public price lists from each studio’s clearing house. Licensing becomes like fuel at the pump. Doesn’t matter who pulls up they’re all paying the same rate.
I have a game my ex me for my Xbox I think it was rainbow six I’ve never played because I couldn’t get through the obnoxious sign up process to play a goddamned game that I owned.
Theft is such an ugly word. It’s really taking from the rich and giving to the poor.
Keep robbin’, stay hoodin’.
I am a willing kleptomaniac
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I just view it as a “try before you buy”. I have loads of CDs and DVDs that I wouldn’t have bought if I hadn’t seen how good they were first.
If I try something and don’t like it then I shouldn’t have to pay for it.
But then you won’t spend money on bad stuff! We can’t get your money before you realize it’s worthless! We can’t have that, think of the “economy”!
This is the problematic view here. You think the monetary value is attached to the product itself, when it’s actually attached to the perceived satisfaction you thought you would’ve gained before purchasing it.
I don’t understand your reply.
I just don’t want to buy an album based off of one song I heard on the radio and then find out that I don’t like it.
Edit: a downvote and no clarification of what you meant. Thanks I guess. . .
You don’t need to buy albums these days though.
P.S - I didn’t downvote you
I like to buy albums, I think it’s a much better way to support artists than streaming plus I like getting a physical copy, the artwork and the lyrics etc. But that’s another debate and it was more just an example.
P.S. Sorry, the downvote seemed conveniently timed
What a great show. I really appreciate this meme.
Over the Garden Wall for those who don’t know. It was a miniseries Cartoon Network did in the 2010s and I agree, it was a really great show.
My friend (an old lady unfamiliar with pirates) bought a dvd the other day. A comedy from 15 years ago.
It had been censored. Offensive dialogue dubbed over. No warning on rhe package.
Yo ho forever.
*bargain also known as 100% discount
Five-finger discount
And it’s good for my financial health
deleted by creator
Why not both?
If purchasing doesn’t convey ownership, copying cannot be theft.
Underrated comment. Upvote it more
Because I’m a cheap bastard.
And also because I’m a third worlder and piracy is my only access.
Morality is a great tool for justifying legal enforcement of my desires. All it takes is a good argument connecting the two.
The arguments are getting less good here tho. They’re getting very thin and flimsy.
What would happen if we threw away the moral argument?
What if instead of offering a moral argument for why you shouldn’t pirate their movies, Disney just said “come at me bro”?
Then I would come. And by God would I die stealing the dumbest shit imaginable just for the sake of it
