this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2023
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Well, my friend, he's kinda poor he can't afford some books and some streaming services, so he pirates. He pirate books, audiobook and videos and other stuff. Sometimes he buys books he likes a lot out of loyalty to the author (yeah, I don't understand it either), he likes to read physical books, but yeah, if he hates the author or just wants to skim through it, he will download the book.

He usually doesn't like to pirate from small companies or professors who are trying to make a living by selling books, but from millionaires & plenty of mega corps which already have loads of money, he feels like it's the right move to pirate

Also, have you ever noticed that you have felt that the value of a product has decreased just because you didn't pay for it, thus you are less interested to read it? i.e., had you paid for the book, you would have more likely read that book.

He says he will buy stuff when his time is more valuable than money, let's all hope that day is soon.

What are your piracy habits?

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[โ€“] _Mantissa@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

My philosophy is that it's wrong to assume that I am entitled to anything that I didn't pay for or create. It's also wrong to eat meat but I still enjoy a good burger. My philosophy is that instead of bending over backwards to make whatever you do the "right" thing, you should simply acknowledge that you are not a wholly good entity. For as long as burgers remain accessible and tasty and the suffering of animals is out my sight, it's going to remain worth it to me to accept that a little part of me is kind of shitty. For as long as the value (ux, price, accessibility, catalogue variety, longevity) heavily favors piracy, I will support my friend that pirates (not me ofc). It doesn't bother me one bit if you steal from Walmart, but don't pretend that just because they are a megacorp that you have no moral responsibility for actual theft. It's diminished, but it's still there. You still did a bad thing. And I support you if you want to say "so what, I don't care about them. They are greedy and they have enough." but I get really irritated by people who think "there's essentially no difference... they don't even notice... it's just a statistic" stop trying to make yourself feel better. By lying to yourself you permanently degrade your own moral judgement and if that's an opinion you willingly share with others then you become very easy to identify as someone with compromised morals. Just my two cents as someone with pirate friends (never me I pinky promise).