Ethics of Internet Piracy

[Atlas Zero]

Is Internet Piracy justifiable? Is it moral in some circumstances or always unethical? Are any of you new age pirates? If so, how do you justify it?

 

[the-dude-abides]

There's nothing morally wrong about pirating from corporations. But when youre downloading music, games, or whatever else from small-time studios or artists its far more dubious.

 

[Deleted member 3578]

There's nothing morally wrong about pirating from corporations. But when youre downloading music, games, or whatever else from small-time studios or artists its far more dubious.

This is my general take on pirating and media/art consumption. Veer towards the smaller and pay as little to the corpy as you can.

 

[赤い男]

i buy when i want to buy something, i pirate when i want to pirate something, i do not care for morals really.

 

[ignika98]

as the old saying goes: a pirate is never a lost/potential customer. if someone pirates, it means they either dont consider the product as something thats worth the asking price, or they simply dont have the money to pay for it if they wanted to.
either way, if piracy was not an option, most if not all people who would normally pirate would just simply not consume the product.

i pirate plenty of games/anime/programs. but ill more than happily pay for a legitimate copy if given the chance to at a reasonable price. im always on the hunt for anime blu rays of shows i like and always buy physical copies of games ive pirated and ended up liking. programs are always easier to use and install when theyre purchased legitimately so if its a part of my regular workflow ill buy it. although more often than not software companies have some really shitty practices that turn me away from paying money for their products in favor of piracy. IE subscription payment models and limited device installs. which is another reason im really in favor of piracy. it give consumers the freedom not to support and partake in shitty company practices.

 

[Vaporweeb]

It's always morally okay to pirate from a corporation.

If I especially like something from a smaller artist, I try to buy it to support them, as indie content always costs less anyway, so it feels a little more scummier to me to pirate from them.

Wouldn't necessarily stop me in all situations, though. Mostly if I don't end up liking the content.

 

[Stinkfist]

There's nothing morally wrong about pirating from corporations. But when youre downloading music, games, or whatever else from small-time studios or artists its far more dubious.

Not really. It kinda depends on where you live. In my case, if i choose not to download my music, i'll simply not have access to any of them offline (which is not convenient), because where i live it is almost impossible to buy any physical media i like if it goes just a little farther from a REALLY famous artist. Or i would have to pay a lot of money, which i cannot afford.

And perhaps it would be better for the artist to get recognition anyway, and to encourage more people to buy their stuff (if they can) even though i didn't for a couple reasons.

Finally, nowadays, you simply cannot avoid people from 'piracying' your stuff.

 

[Mk_Ultra_Victim]

When it comes to adobe products, pirating is always ethical. I feel different when it comes to smaller companies like game publishers. I don't really care if you pirate from a big company because I don't believe in that "You're stealing money from the company.". Just think big not little when it comes to pirating. I assure you that you're wallet won't die from buying a little four dollar indie game

 

[Vaporweeb]

Not really. It kinda depends on where you live. In my case, if i choose not to download my music, i'll simply not have access to any of them offline (which is not convenient), because where i live it is almost impossible to buy any physical media i like if it goes just a little farther from a REALLY famous artist. Or i would have to pay a lot of money, which i cannot afford.

And perhaps it would be better for the artist to get recognition anyway, and to encourage more people to buy their stuff (if they can) even though i didn't for a couple reasons.

Finally, nowadays, you simply cannot avoid people from 'piracying' your stuff.

You could always go the old school route and burn your "acquired" music to disc, if you've a working drive and player. A 100 pack of CD-Rs goes for just under $20 today, which is still less than just a couple legitimate physical (and digital, for that matter) albums.

 

[FreshSk8r]

Piracy will be wrong when they stop charging 50 USD for a single season of JoJo. On DVD.

Seriously though, I think piracy is 100% fine if it doesn't directly affect the company. If you can't buy a certain game or software, then piracy is really the best option. Buying second-hand doesn't help the company at all, so you're not even remotely stealing anything.
It gets murky when you're pirating modern software, but I'd argue even that is fine given how much corruption and deceptive, unethical practices are found in large companies anyway.
Piracy is also a good form of helping the less fortunate. Kinda like a Robin Hood scenario. It could even work as advertising.

The only time I would feel awful pirating is from a small developer, or someone I respect. I would at least support them a different way if it comes to that.

 

[Stinkfist]

You could always go the old school route and burn your "acquired" music to disc, if you've a working drive and player. A 100 pack of CD-Rs goes for just under $20 today, which is still less than just a couple legitimate physical (and digital, for that matter) albums.

i used to do that. I'll probably do it again when i buy a better CD player

 

[jdnt]

Surprised no one has mentioned this but old media that isn't being sold anymore or is really difficult to find but very easy to pirate and so sometimes, piracy its the only option (or not have the media at all). What about all those retro games my generation will never get to play? Its not fair that we should miss out simply because the company isn't doing remakes or supporting older consoles. In a way, piracy also keeps old media alive.

 

[Vaporweeb]

Surprised no one has mentioned this but old media that isn't being sold anymore or is really difficult to find but very easy to pirate and so sometimes, piracy its the only option (or not have the media at all). What about all those retro games my generation will never get to play? Its not fair that we should miss out simply because the company isn't doing remakes or supporting older consoles. In a way, piracy also keeps old media alive.

10,000% Valid.
Nintendo refuses to sell their old games in a satisfactory manner (playable offline, and without the need for a bullshit subscription), so I fully endorse the piracy of media such as that.

 

[PatriotSmash]

For me personally if I pirate your software or whatever it just means I was never going to purchase your product to begin with. So no loss in revenue for the company, there is not even a loss in damages from me "stealing" the companies product. Something cant be stolen if its still there after the fact.

 

[mydadiscar]

It's probably not morally justified. Do I look like I care?
If you're poor then look at it like this: you have to take your hard earned money that you have to ration for items essential to your survival and fork it over to someone with plenty of disposable money just to experience a little temporary pleasure.

 

[zalaz alaza]

For me, if it is a small time artist I will generally purchase something if I want their product(art, game, music) but also, even in that situation my feeling is that artists should be expected to work just like everyone else.

The idea that an artists makes one thing once and can endlessly profit off of it via mass production is silly. They need to keep doing the work of producing artifacts if they want it to work. Or put on public events etc...

Obviously, it is probably morally a better choice to pirate corporate property than to actually pay for it

 

[joypistols974@aol.com]

Corporate entertainment is not here for us. Even independant and unknown artists get little from their content. The only way to help them truly is show up for a gig and buy their merch there. It works like this for punk but idk how it does for other genres/other art forms. Anyway I pirate and I'll keep pirating 'till I die.

 

[Moon-Watcher777]

Surprised no one has mentioned this but old media that isn't being sold anymore or is really difficult to find but very easy to pirate and so sometimes, piracy its the only option (or not have the media at all). What about all those retro games my generation will never get to play? Its not fair that we should miss out simply because the company isn't doing remakes or supporting older consoles. In a way, piracy also keeps old media alive.

Absolutely this! I feel like once a console or game is no longer supported it should be free domain. Emulation is the only thing keeping retro gaming alive and Nintendo can suck my dick. I seed their shit HARD AF.

 

[penguinblanket]

For older games, such as on the Nintendo gamecube, piracy is a necessity because physical copies are near impossible to find in some cases.
Smash Bros Melee for example is being kept alive by the emulation community. Especially during the covid lockdowns with online play, which is not a feature of the original game.

 

[Aral]

Piracy, I'd say, is only wrong when it actually harms the creator, like, they are actually making their living with their creation. But half of the time the companies who make whatever we pirate have way enough money to go around, and generally don't question whether it's moral or not to exploit their workers or to overprice the stuff we're buying, while most of us are already struggling to make ends meet.