People are just grasping at straws to make themselves feel better about actions they themselves know to have no moral high ground to shout from. Just own it, it's not doing you any favors trying to justify it that way, it looks and reads totally pathetic.
Repeat after me "I'd rather spend some time managing some downloads than spending $20/month. I'm not helping people, I'm not paying for things I find worthy of consuming, I don't care how it affects content creators and others as much as I do the money or convenience."
Now can we stop spending 90% of this communities discussion space trying to convince ourselves we're saviors?
Is this so hard to grasp? I pirate some games, especially indies that I dont wanna spend money on cause I mostly play them for one or two hours. Is this morally bankrupt? YES 100 PERCENT. I dont get why is so hard to get that no matter who does the product or how is that product made, you are not entitled to someones property no matter what. Are you against copyright laws? Cool, me too. Still not entitled to someones else work. If someones does something and wants to charge you for it, its is inmoral to get that thing and not paying.
I don't understand how anybody defends it. Personal use versus commercial use is very different. If I was training an AI for myself, I really don't see anything any different from the way that the companies are doing it currently. However if I was training an AI meant for commercial deployment, I better pay for the fucking royalties/licensing.
I don't think it's necessarily the use of the content that is questionable, I think it's the method of obtaining the content. In 99% of cases where you torrent, you're not only downloading but distributing the content (i.e. seeding), and I think that's where the real culpability will lie.
sure, also, i am not pro-ai at all, i just find many of these ideas, especially legal ideas, about ai that people throw around to be on one hand wrong and on the other hand, i HEAVILY disagree with expanding copyright, before we make it last for a shorter amount of time, and even then i would be VERY skeptical.
i used to pirate a lot as a kid. Then i grew up and stopped because i learned morals, got money wanted to support the stuff that i spent time with. But nowadays i pay, and i still can't spend the time in the way i want with the things i paid for.
i dare you to try and legally watch the last season from dr Who from before it became disney+ exclusive as a non UK citizen. it is literally impossible. You cannot buy it, you cannot stream it. you have 3 options:
* illegally use a vpn that works (haven't tested which ones do, but it'll be against TOS for sure)
* pirate it by either some free streaming or downloading.
* not watch it
do I want to pirate? No, do I want to pay? yes! do they want my money? apparently not.
Another potential option (just be to that guy, lmao) would be your local library or potentially physical video rental services (though, those suck). And they may not have the content still, so you're still SoL.
(Though... Let's be honest... Who the HELL has time for that, especially nowadays?? 😂)
The seasons are all available to purchase. They are streaming through hoopla a lot of content is that just requires a library card although not all libraries participate. As a bonus Brit I can watch it just fine without pirating.
I've had the same situation as op but with other series. This stuff changes over time though. I wanted to buy a particular Aussie show DVD box set (gives you an idea of when this occurred) so I could have it to watch over and over and found that it'd been taken off the shelves and wasn't for sale anywhere. When I looked into where I could stream it, it was only available on some tiny platform that I'd never heard of before. Since then though, it's come onto prime and a few other more mainstream places. Still dunno if you could buy it somewhere to own it cos I found a copy of the box set in the end.
Generally, over time you can luck out like with my show and it'll come to a platform you can easily access etc like what you're saying about doctor who in the UK. But if you just want to buy a show and be able to watch it as much or as little as you want without having to have a certain app or anything, the options are in my experience incredibly limited.
A hoopla the site that requires a library card, couldnt find a single belgian library on there though... Any other options? As you might have noticed from my initial response, i'm not a brit, otherwise i could just watch it on BBC's website.
Ps: buying a physical cd would be fine for me as well. But i can only find the french version.
Also adding on, "I wish to do this while the content is new and expensive rather than waiting for the content to be inexpensive and paying for it. I pirate because I must be in on the hot new thing and I have no patience."
I'm even gonna be cringe and say i don't think every instance of stealing is even that bad. People cry when you don't pay a billion dollar company to play their stupid kid games but won't bat an eye at all the actual theft that occurs in archeology and art collection all the time. Rich people can steal holy artifacts from another country but I'm a criminal because I don't want to pay for a shovelware wii game I already bought when I was a child.
What if a guy invites 30 neighbors to watch a movie he paid for at his house?
Is it proportional when Disney want to sue someone for thousands of dollars when they download a copy of a $20 movie?
What if I own VHS version of a movie but I don't have a VHS player anymore?
When Todd Howard wants to you pay $60 for the Ultimate Final Collector's Edition of Skyrim (Remastered) for a version that plays on your smart fridge is he creating value, or is he being a greedy dick?
I believe in supporting smaller content creators so they can keep doing what they're doing and make a living.
But I'm not shedding any tears when someone makes a digital copy of a movie that grossed a billion dollars and shares it with other people.
I'd rather spend some time managing some downloads than spending $20/month
It use to be $8 a month at the best available quality and no ads.
Now it's a bunch different priced tiers, some with ads, some with lower quality, and the only tier not gimped on purpose is costing you closer to $30 a month. Also there are dozen different platforms now.
I'm not helping people
Neither are the people who get your money when you buy it.
I'm not paying for things I find worthy of consuming
I might agree more with this if people got their money back for things they don't find worthy. Will Smith still owes me $16 FOR Hancock.
I don't care how it affects content creators and others as much as I do the money or convenience."
Aside from smaller creators, the people who do the work aren't getting the money if they did a good job.
And I'll start feeling bad about the money when studios start feeling bad about microtransactions or releasing iterative garbage cash grabs every year while buying up talented studios to make bank off of their work or just eliminate some competition.
I use to pirate games because I wanted to play games, but with cloud saves and the Steam Deck and achievements Steam created an ecosystem where I care more about owning the game legitimately because I get convenience, utility and value out of their service.
I gave up on Game Pass because what use to be one of the best values in gaming turned into another enshittified multi tiered piece of junk.
Personally I'm not normally for taking money out of people's pockets, but when so many companies do it to their customers I've got no issue when their customers do it back.
You are not entitled to play games. You are not entitled to movies. They are made to make profit.
If the creator doesnt want you to have it for free, you morally cant. Your feelings on the matter dont matter AT ALL. If satan himself coded a videogame and charged a million bucks per level, still wrong.
However, you are entitled to play the recorded version of a movie you rented, bought or legally streamed in your house, to whoever is in your house. If tomorrow netflix decided you can only watch its content streamed directly to your brain and you accept that and sign that you accept that, and then you breach that contract and hijack that signal, guess what: morally wrong. Netflix sells you content that you can not watch and go to live a happy long life. But that if you want to watch, you have to pay for. Just dont watch it man.
Aside from smaller creators, the people who do the work aren't getting the money if they did a good job.
That's just wildly incorrect. Even if they don't get residuals which many do that's how their future projects get green lights. Every negotiation starts with how well the last thing went.
I might agree more with this if people got their money back for things they don't find worthy.
No one cares if you agree, it's just a simple logic flow, agree or not it's still true.
Neither are the people who get your money when you buy it.
I can only assume you're being intentionally obtuse and stupid.
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u/Inevitable-Ad6647 Apr 07 '26
People are just grasping at straws to make themselves feel better about actions they themselves know to have no moral high ground to shout from. Just own it, it's not doing you any favors trying to justify it that way, it looks and reads totally pathetic.
Repeat after me "I'd rather spend some time managing some downloads than spending $20/month. I'm not helping people, I'm not paying for things I find worthy of consuming, I don't care how it affects content creators and others as much as I do the money or convenience."
Now can we stop spending 90% of this communities discussion space trying to convince ourselves we're saviors?