this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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I seriously don't understand the mental gymnastics here. We pirate because we'd rather get something for free than pay for it. There are certainly cases when someone is forced to pirate a product due to copyright restrictions in their country but that isn't the case most of the time for people like us who pirate. We're just selfish and there's noting wrong with admitting that.
The mental gymnastics are in response to copyright holders' gymnastics. They remove content, relocate it, put it behind tiered subscriptions, or sometimes effectively delete it from all legal avenues after owners/subscribers paid for it. So if paying for a subscription isn't owning it, as described in Amazon's fine print for example, then what do you do? It's a long-term rental subject to removal upon any licensing transfers. Sure, we get greedy once set up, but if legal options don't actually offer you any legal ownership due to legal gymnastics, then yeah, I'll do the mental gymnastics right back at them.
It's their IP, they can distribute it in any way they see fit. It doesn't entitle you to steal it just because you disagree with how it's distributed.
How can it be stealing if downloading doesn’t take the content away from anyone else.
This is just another example of mental gymnastics when it comes to piracy.
Do you strictly have to deprive others of content to be stealing? Taking away potential revenue, stealing someone's design, etc. are also forms of stealing. If a gaming company lifts some art someone shared and put it in their game without compensating the artist or getting permission, would that not be stealing? They're not taking away that content from anyone else - so is that ok?
Pretty sure that you do have to intend to permanently deprive for it to be theft. What you're describing is copyright infringement. Whether that's morally right is a different question but it's not stealing.
Is it though?
Theft in Scots Law is defined as the wrongful appropriation of the property of another, with the intention of permanently depriving the other person of his or her possession.
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