• Isoprenoid
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    2 months ago

    How does pirating make a corporation broke? Making a copy doesn’t steal money.

    Edit: We can’t pirate a company into bankruptcy.

    • dch82@lemmy.zipOP
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      2 months ago

      Because they keep whining that they’re losing money /s

      EDIT: added /s

      • 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de
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        2 months ago

        I have an automated setup that can torrent the same game 100000 times so I can make corporations go broke at the click of a button. Fear me

        • dch82@lemmy.zipOP
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          2 months ago

          I have a collection of 10000 classic Nintendo games on an HDD so I can make Nintendo America file chapter 11. Fear me

    • ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      We can’t pirate a company into bankruptcy because there are still people paying for the movies and games we download. If everyone pirated content, these companies would go bankrupt, and there would no longer be new content to pirate. Online pirates often justify their behavior by telling themselves a story about how they’re ‘sticking it to the man,’ but in reality, we’re just freeriders enjoying the fruits of others’ labor. We’re leeches with no moral ground to stand on.

    • datendefekt@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      Well, they have to pay licensing fees for the media, pay crazy money for the IT infrastructure, which they have no matter how many downloads.

    • WhyAUsername_1@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      You didn’t pay up to enjoy the product. They lost revenue. But yes, it didn’t “broke” the corporation.

      • magic_smoke@links.hackliberty.org
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        2 months ago

        Unless “piracy” is your alternative to buying a brand new copy at launch, I don’t wanna hear it.

        If GameStop can make bank re-selling used games without giving back a cent to the developer, how is doing the same for free, without taking up competitive retail space any worse?

          • magic_smoke@links.hackliberty.org
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            2 months ago

            So was the install I made a copy of and gave to a friend. Either way the publisher makes the same amount.

            Sure there might be a limited number of used copies, but when you’re talking about a mass manufactured product with limited demand like a random used game, then yeah, might as well be unlimited. How many used copies of GTA V or Skyrim out there do you think there are? Answer: far more than there are people looking to buy them, and each one of those copies can be sold an infinite amount of times.

            The only games that are so rare that this matters are either so expensive or so hard to come by that everyone is okay with pirating them anyways because there’s no reasonable way to obtain them, and they’re all usually out of print any who.

            • Something Burger 🍔@jlai.lu
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              2 months ago

              it’s okay to pirate rare games because there are so few of them

              it’s okay to pirate common games because there are so many of them

              Look, I’m all for piracy and against copyright, but you can simply admit you like free stuff without finding twisted explanations to justify it.

              • magic_smoke@links.hackliberty.org
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                2 months ago

                So long as everyone who wants to play a game can purchase it used, its functionally no different than piracy. Except someone who did no work makes money off of it.

                If a game can’t be easily legally obtained, if at all, its a pretty common belief that piracy is justified in the name of preservation.

                The only exceptions to this are new releases which haven’t reached critical mass, and smaller releases which will never reach any sort of mass following.

                The former is especially important when you realize that two months post-launch of a new piece of media, the company has made back the artist saleries, and everything after that is just bonus for the useless vultures upstairs.

    • where_am_i@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      In fact, you’re helping them promote their stuff. E.g. everyone is watching that TV show and it’s all your friends are talking about. Now you have to do it too.

      If instead of pirating you’d be like “I think it’s extremely expensive to pay a subscription fee for this low tier content, so instead I’ve been reading X”. Maybe you’d convice someone to join you. But for now you’re just reinforcing the media monopoly.

      • GrammarPolice@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        So now i should stop doing everything involving a digital subscription that’s fun just to stick it to the corpos? I don’t know if I’m misunderstanding your argument

        • where_am_i@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          You want to portrait yourself as an anti-corpo warrior. But all you’re doing is making corpo content a mainstream monopoly, and through that they will eventually find a way to make someone pay for it.

          You will only make corpos go broke if you actually spend some money on alternative content. Meaning that content will get better, and there will be some follower base to enjoy that content with.

          • GrammarPolice@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            I guess i can see the appeal of that idea if you’re willing to give up the variety of content you would otherwise have access to by sticking with corporations. I think Lemmy is a good example of this idea. I just can’t find it within me to give up the massive amounts of content available to me particularly when it comes to gaming and film.

            I mean think about it. I won’t play GTA6 so as not to contribute to the oligopoly Rockstar games is associated with. I mean i get your point - small changes make big differences right? - but it’s not always feasible to abandon all the good stuff that’s out there all in an effort to promote individual innovation.

            • where_am_i@sh.itjust.works
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              2 months ago

              I will pay for their single player if reasonable, I’ll probably pirate cuz their shitty online tracking made GTA5 not even worth playing legally for free. A pirated version would’ve worked much better and wouldn’t require their fkn launcher social club disaster.

              But absolutely surely I’ll know I’m not an anti-corpo warrior. Just a tiny rebel insignificant enough to ignore. And I only matter a tiny bit, because I actually would’ve bought their game if it was on GOG.

              And if everyone always bought on GOG only, you’d see a much, much stronger presence on that platform.

              Till then their answer to you will be “hey you’ve been playing this game and your friends did too, well in order to play together it’s 10$/months, good luck pirating that”.

    • GrammarPolice@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      How are you this naive? You know someone has to pay the developers a salary right? How would corporations pay them if nobody bought the game and instead pirated?

      • parlaptie@feddit.org
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        2 months ago

        Yeah you gotta support the corporations financially so the game can be successful and they can go on to lay off all their developers anyway.

        Remember Tango Studios?

      • Isoprenoid
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        2 months ago

        They pay out of initial capital investment and leveraging.

      • dch82@lemmy.zipOP
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        2 months ago

        They’re paid a salary as the game development goes on?

        EDIT: I was confused

    • IsThisAnAI@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      If you aren’t stealing them they aren’t stealing your content or work with AI. This pirating isn’t stealing bullshit is tired. Some backwards ass way to justify stealing someone’s right to distribute their work and get paid.