this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
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For those saying "just pirate it" some people like the option of physical media and have moral qualms about piracy. This is actually a good thing WB is doing. Just let people have their DVDs
If you own the physical DVD, fair use allows you to own a backup copy, so torrenting it in that case would not be unethical nor illegal.
You’re allowed to make your own backup, but I’m pretty sure downloading somebody else’s backup is still illegal? First time I’ve seen someone suggest otherwise, would love more details about the actual laws.
I'm not a law talking guy, but from my understanding of it, downloading isn't illegal. But if you're torrenting it, you're uploading bits of it to others while you're downloading. That would be distributing it to others, so that's copyright infringement.
So if you could find a way to download something without uploading anything, you'd be fine. Kinda like if someone uploads copyright infringing material to youtube. You're not going to get into hot water for watching that video, but the person who uploaded is.
Apparently, Facebook managed to do it because they downloaded the whole pirated library without seeding it.
Downloading a copy would not be illegal in the US. Uploading a copy to someone would likely be illegal.
I mean maybe technically (I'm sure it varies depending on country). But I'm not aware of any cases where they've ever pursued anyone for that.
It's definitely a grey area in the US, I believe (again, no precedent set), and someone with a good lawyer could actually get a good ruling here, which would set the precedent. Which is probably why they never pursue it. I think that happened with VHS when people were taping shows in the 80s/90s (could be misremembering that).
The concept of "fair use" in general (not referring to specific interpretations of the term) definitely allows you to do this. At least how I interpret it. I am not a lawyer.
So if it were me, I'd only be concerned with the ethics, and I see nothing ethically wrong with it whatsoever. But that's just me.
I don't know about the US specifically, but oftentimes, and definitely where I'm from, laws can have a small amount of "common sense" leeway and judges can find justifications for rulings if they want to rule a particular way. e.g. I have pirated games that I legally bought because there's literally no functioning "official" download link anymore, if anyone were to ever prosecute me for that, even if it were illegal technically a judge could find a way to rule it lawful out of sympathy or whatever other reason, if they wanted to. A lot of the time it's "the government can't have possibly intended this law to be enforced this way, therefore I rule XYZ".
In any case, as you said, I've never heard of anyone being pursued for that. And if it's not enforced, it's not a law.
I have bought then pirated media like this in many instances, usually because piracy is a better user experience, once because outdated DRM completely broke
I totally understand the desire to own physical media and agree that WB is doing the right thing here, but optical media is terrible means of preserving media. If your discs are suffering from disc rot, you really shouldn't lose sleep over making or "sourcing" your own local digital copies.
Yeah, that is a very valid option! I don't like it when people not into collecting do it, though. Because it makes zero logical sense for a digital copy to be tied to a physical thing, unless you like the sentimental value of said physical thing as well.
be ye shill or bootlicker, may thou be cast at great speed into our Goddess and saviour Sol
I'm all for piracy. I just recognise different people want different things.
I must remind you where your Bluray Remux release is sourced from.
Fuck off, these people already own it at this point, so there is no such moral qualms. They paid for it. As for physical media, do you think only these companies can burn ISOs to DVD????
Yes they already own them and WB is replacing them, they're not buying them again. Man, so hostile. And for some there are those moral qualms. I know some of them. I'm not one of them. Calm down