Oh but it's not buying! The big "Buy" or "Purchase" button might have said so, but if you'd have careful read through 35 pages of user agreements, you'd see that you only rent the license to stream it.
Which obviously is total bullshit and the whole fucking system should be burned to the ground.
This is precisely why I refuse to buy digital games. (And it extends to other media, but games are where I actually spend money)
I’ll pay for a rental service designed to be a rental service (ps+, for example) but will not buy individual games digitally. Who knows when they will become unavailable for some reason, and I can no longer download a copy. It’s bad enough when servers are shut down within 2 years of launch, but when the whole game gets pulled, then what?
I’ve decided I’m not even bothering with the next generation of consoles. So few things are even released on disc, with half the consoles being digital only, that it’s not even worth it. I’ll pirate instead.
This is where the law needs to step in, it should be illegal to call it "Buy" if you are just leasing it. It's absolutely misleading to most consumers.
The previous comment is more like shorthand, rather than literal truth.
It's faster to say piracy isn't stealing if purchasing isn't ownership than it is to say "if a company can simply reverse a permanent access license at any time then pirating media from them is perfectly ethical and should not be considered a crime"
It's bad shorthand though. In this context, there was never any "buying content" happening, nor was piracy ever "stealing". It's just misrepresentation of both sides.
That's fair, but I feel like the point is that many people go through a process where
You pay money
The buttons on your screen say "buy" "purchase" "check-out" or something else to that effect
That feels like buying media, so according to the common "consumer" (hate that word) brain, you are spending money to buy content.
At the same time, media corps have been trying to teach us for years that piracy is exactly the same as stealing.
The whole point of the shorthand is to explain that these are not facts, they're misconceptions, AND both of these misconceptions exist for the same reason, corporate propaganda.
It doesn't just feel like it, it says it. What it is is false advertising. If you don't get to keep it forever, the button should say something along the lines of "rent until we decide to stop hosting it".
Because you're bitching about it. Either there's a better way to express the precise picture you're describing, or your central argument is fundamentally flawed, and it's an effective shorthand.
Sure, there's nuance. Shorthand is used to convey a nuanced thought quickly. That's literally the point.
I am not sure of all the posters here, you would want to mention "throwing a tantrum" in regards to being wrong. But hey I for one am a fan of your posts, it has been fun reading.
It is stealing. I don’t understand the mental gymnastics here. You’re stealing income from whoever created the content if you’re not paying them for your ability to watch it.
How are you stealing income if there was no intention to pay the company to begin with? Even if there was an intention to buy it, companies aren't entitled to consumers' money. This is especially the case if the consumer has previously purchased a license to consume the product, and then the company decides to take (or steal) it away. No moral qualms with pirating the same content then.
It's digital data; you're copying something, leaving the original completely intact. It's not like a physical BluRay, where if you steal it from a store, you are making that store lose money due to that physical stock being stolen.
And lastly, how is the company not stealing from consumers when they pull shit like this?
You can't reason with him. He is an anti-piracy troll.
For him, any comparison made to help him understand is a logical fallacy and any evidence presented against his argument is "irrelevant" as he puts it.
It is like arguing with a trump-like narcissist lol. "My argument counts and yours is wrong, but if yours is right then it is irrelevant, made up, and/or a straw man. If I don't understand something then it is an attack and I will insult you and instantly label you inferior."
It's sad honestly and just like them all he is all "think of the poor artists who created the media you love" while conveniently ignoring that in the music industry, many/most artists don't even get royalties because the record labels swindled then forced them to sign their lives and works away getting a couple pennies on the dollar.
Video game industry is salaried. All profits go to the corporations outside of indie games. Movies, outside of the big name stars, earn almost poverty wages and absolutely 0.00% of what gets sold because the studios are so incredibly corrupt.
Not to mention dead artists where unless they were extremely smart, their families are likely earning 0% of sold media.
Also not getting into the fact that copyright used to be very short until large corporations bribed lawmakers constantly and for so much corrupt money that they changed copyright to extend an extreme amount of time, otherwise things from the 90s would already be public domain if there wasn't so much blatant bribery and corruption done by the people you are "stealing" from.
Unless you are pirating things from Dolly Parton or someone who was business savvy enough to not get cheated by the studios, you are not stealing from the artists in any crazy mental gymnastic stretch of the imagination.
Piracy, at the very worst, is stealing from long time hard criminals. There is not a single big record corporation that has not committed a multitude of thefts, blackmail, drug dealing, bribery of government officials, and worse. That isn't even getting into the crimes of porn studios and movie studios. Disney mass murdered animals on camera for views as one example.
LOL they know it's stealing. Some of them will even blatantly admit it with no guilt.
Here's the question though: if you click the button that says "buy" and give them money, but you don't actually own it, have they stolen from you?
If you "bought" a printer and then like a year later the company comes back and says "actually no" and takes your printer back, is that stealing? And if you go back to that company's warehouse and take it back from them, is that also stealing? 🤔
If buying isn't ownership then pirating isn't stealing
Oh but it's not buying! The big "Buy" or "Purchase" button might have said so, but if you'd have careful read through 35 pages of user agreements, you'd see that you only rent the license to stream it.
Which obviously is total bullshit and the whole fucking system should be burned to the ground.
This is precisely why I refuse to buy digital games. (And it extends to other media, but games are where I actually spend money)
I’ll pay for a rental service designed to be a rental service (ps+, for example) but will not buy individual games digitally. Who knows when they will become unavailable for some reason, and I can no longer download a copy. It’s bad enough when servers are shut down within 2 years of launch, but when the whole game gets pulled, then what?
I’ve decided I’m not even bothering with the next generation of consoles. So few things are even released on disc, with half the consoles being digital only, that it’s not even worth it. I’ll pirate instead.
This is where the law needs to step in, it should be illegal to call it "Buy" if you are just leasing it. It's absolutely misleading to most consumers.
Licensing isn't ownership, and pirating isn't stealing, it's copyright infringement.
The previous comment is more like shorthand, rather than literal truth.
It's faster to say piracy isn't stealing if purchasing isn't ownership than it is to say "if a company can simply reverse a permanent access license at any time then pirating media from them is perfectly ethical and should not be considered a crime"
It's bad shorthand though. In this context, there was never any "buying content" happening, nor was piracy ever "stealing". It's just misrepresentation of both sides.
That's fair, but I feel like the point is that many people go through a process where
That feels like buying media, so according to the common "consumer" (hate that word) brain, you are spending money to buy content.
At the same time, media corps have been trying to teach us for years that piracy is exactly the same as stealing.
The whole point of the shorthand is to explain that these are not facts, they're misconceptions, AND both of these misconceptions exist for the same reason, corporate propaganda.
It doesn't just feel like it, it says it. What it is is false advertising. If you don't get to keep it forever, the button should say something along the lines of "rent until we decide to stop hosting it".
Come up with something better then.
Why?
Because you're bitching about it. Either there's a better way to express the precise picture you're describing, or your central argument is fundamentally flawed, and it's an effective shorthand.
Sure, there's nuance. Shorthand is used to convey a nuanced thought quickly. That's literally the point.
Lol "bitching" about it.
Weird logic. Pointing out something that isn't accurate but gets parroted anyways means I need to come up with a better thing to parrot.
There’s no logic here. You’re right and they’re just throwing a tantrum because it means they’re wrong.
I am not sure of all the posters here, you would want to mention "throwing a tantrum" in regards to being wrong. But hey I for one am a fan of your posts, it has been fun reading.
Infringe me harder daddy ©👄©
It is stealing. I don’t understand the mental gymnastics here. You’re stealing income from whoever created the content if you’re not paying them for your ability to watch it.
How are you stealing income if there was no intention to pay the company to begin with? Even if there was an intention to buy it, companies aren't entitled to consumers' money. This is especially the case if the consumer has previously purchased a license to consume the product, and then the company decides to take (or steal) it away. No moral qualms with pirating the same content then.
It's digital data; you're copying something, leaving the original completely intact. It's not like a physical BluRay, where if you steal it from a store, you are making that store lose money due to that physical stock being stolen.
And lastly, how is the company not stealing from consumers when they pull shit like this?
It is not stealing. The mental gymnastics are when you try to claim that it is.
It's just as much "stealing" as me not watching it at all.
I'm infringing on their copyright, absolutely, but I'm not taking anything away from them that they could otherwise profit from.
You can't reason with him. He is an anti-piracy troll.
For him, any comparison made to help him understand is a logical fallacy and any evidence presented against his argument is "irrelevant" as he puts it.
It is like arguing with a trump-like narcissist lol. "My argument counts and yours is wrong, but if yours is right then it is irrelevant, made up, and/or a straw man. If I don't understand something then it is an attack and I will insult you and instantly label you inferior."
It's sad honestly and just like them all he is all "think of the poor artists who created the media you love" while conveniently ignoring that in the music industry, many/most artists don't even get royalties because the record labels swindled then forced them to sign their lives and works away getting a couple pennies on the dollar.
Video game industry is salaried. All profits go to the corporations outside of indie games. Movies, outside of the big name stars, earn almost poverty wages and absolutely 0.00% of what gets sold because the studios are so incredibly corrupt.
Not to mention dead artists where unless they were extremely smart, their families are likely earning 0% of sold media.
Also not getting into the fact that copyright used to be very short until large corporations bribed lawmakers constantly and for so much corrupt money that they changed copyright to extend an extreme amount of time, otherwise things from the 90s would already be public domain if there wasn't so much blatant bribery and corruption done by the people you are "stealing" from.
Unless you are pirating things from Dolly Parton or someone who was business savvy enough to not get cheated by the studios, you are not stealing from the artists in any crazy mental gymnastic stretch of the imagination.
Piracy, at the very worst, is stealing from long time hard criminals. There is not a single big record corporation that has not committed a multitude of thefts, blackmail, drug dealing, bribery of government officials, and worse. That isn't even getting into the crimes of porn studios and movie studios. Disney mass murdered animals on camera for views as one example.
LOL they know it's stealing. Some of them will even blatantly admit it with no guilt.
Here's the question though: if you click the button that says "buy" and give them money, but you don't actually own it, have they stolen from you?
If you "bought" a printer and then like a year later the company comes back and says "actually no" and takes your printer back, is that stealing? And if you go back to that company's warehouse and take it back from them, is that also stealing? 🤔
Wait, do you think people that pirate things all have the same beliefs or something? Such a weird way to logic. 😅 Truly, that's a new one.
👆