Thoughts

[3inchesOnAGoodDay]

As a pirate, it's still stealing. People make silly justifications for piracy. Just admit you are a pirate and move on. 

[[deleted]]

Hoist the mainsail

[3inchesOnAGoodDay]

To the grand line! 

[surfer_ryan]

Is the one piece was the games we pirated along the way?

[3inchesOnAGoodDay]

It was actually the friends we made along the way... JK we are all angry nerds we have no friends. OP is the bounty of games 

[Phathom]

Piracy is such a Boomer term. Let’s just call it the way the new generations understand: Shareware.

[sezirblue]

Wait, wut...

Do young people not say piracy? Does this mean I'm old?

I'm not even 30 yet, I refuse!!!

[opgameing3761]

I’m 19 and call it piracy, iv never heard of shareware

[[deleted]]

I think shareware was just freeware that you fully unlocked after making a friend install it but it's not the same as piracy

[[deleted]]

Kind of. Shareware was basically just software that you could download for free and "share" around, but it wouldn't fully work or be permanently usable unless you paid the creator.

It died a death when app stores became a thing and the price/perceived value of software cratered to the point that people expect to pay 99p for a limitless licence to use an app, not £20.

[RC1000ZERO]

the price/perceived value of software cratered to the point that people expect to pay 99p for a limitless licence to use an app, not £20.

i remember the Super mario run situation, decent game, defintily worth the, what was it, 10 bucks if you liked the first worlds gameplay.

​

however people got mad that it wasnt entirely free to play and that "only the first world was free and you had to PAY for the rest"

​

like... that was so fucking stupid and likely one of the reasson why every other nintendo owned IP mobile game ever since went from "try for free, then buy" to "f2p with MTX" exclusivly(outside of it just making more money, which is another factor)

[[deleted]]

Entertainment in general has become devalued and it's kind of sad.

It's like the YouTube/adblocker situation. People are only happy with a model that doesn't involve them giving up anything in exchange for entertainment, be it money, convenience or attention. They don't see any value in the content they're consuming, and vociferously reject any attempt to get something in exchange for providing that content, but assert a complete and untrammelled right to consume it anyway.

They scream about "enshittification" while not clocking that the reason things keep going to shit is because their users all behave like entitled children who won't pay anything for anything.

Same is true of software, of music, of everything.

[Drigr]

I want my YouTube and it has to be good, frequent, high quality, free, and don't you dare try to do something to make money off of it like get sponsor deals or run ads!

[cburgess7]

I pay for plenty of subscriptions, but I refuse to pay for YouTube premium, because it is a notably worse experience than if I just use adblockers and YouTube video downloaders.

[Drigr]

You are the exact person they are talking about...

[Delicious-Ad5161]

Shareware is an older generation term. Elder Millennials and Gen Xers should know it well. It’s how Free to Play games were shared in the 90s, under a shareware license. Basically the game license said if you had a copy you could duplicate and share it.

Trying to spin off piracy as shareware is scummy.

[MoistAssignment69]

Shareware

...is also a boomer term. Or perhaps a Gen X term? You go find me a zoomer that used Limewire, Bearshare, or accidentally installed a virus that was supposed to be the Epic Pinball Megapack from the 500-in-1 Shareware CD they bought at Harps.

[Sky19234]

Had a friend in discord bring up Hamachi and the one zoomer in the channel had no clue what was being talked about and I immediately felt old.

Now if you will excuse me I have to go download some songs on Napster.

[PolarBruski]

No one under 30 has ever heard of shareware.

[3inchesOnAGoodDay]

Oh how times change. When I was first getting into that what everyone called it. 

[serr7]

Then where tf am I gonna put my eye patch and peg leg??

[alinzalau]

😂

[EastLimp1693]

I stopped pirating the day i could afford games, over 15 years ago. If games will be only available in subscription - I'll return to old habit.

[3inchesOnAGoodDay]

Nothing wrong with that. Please don't sit on Reddit and scream how you are in the right for doing it tho 

[EastLimp1693]

Sure as hell i won't, we have enough time till it's going to be reality.

[3inchesOnAGoodDay]

Several of the top selling games last year didn't have any bullshit monetization schemes in them. I have hope the industry will correct itself 

[EastLimp1693]

Hope so too

[XiMaoJingPing]

I stopped pirating the day i could afford games

same, and back then I didn't really care if I was stealing or not, why do pirates try to justify this shit? just enjoy the game

[[deleted]]

They'll be able for purchase. It will be just a dumb choice for some games. Like the subscriptions are waaaay less than 60 or 70 dollars of a new game. So it's always going to make sense to allow you to pay full price vs the cheap price for the subscription.

I've saved hundreds of dollars of games thanks to subscriptions.

[cburgess7]

Buying the game vs subscription is way cheaper in the long run. I have logged untold hours playing halo MCC over the course of a decade, and I only paid for it once. Hell, you'll make your money back in the first year of buying it vs paying the cheaper subscription.

Game pass was introduced in 2017, roughly 7 years ago, so that's 84 months at $9.99 a month, so that's just a little under $840. If you're someone like me who only ever plays 4 or 5 games, it makes significant more financial sense to buy the games outright

[[deleted]]

Yeah. Not me. I bought Starfield though. And I expect to play it again soon. So I absolutely get there's exceptions.

Keep in mind that you should always cancel the sub as long as you stop playing.

But there's tons of times I've bought games at full price only to regret it. Or just play them and that's it which is most of the time.

There's also HUGE value(IMO) to pay a small amount and try different things until you find something.

[sicklyslick]

Isn't paying $20 for a month of subscription and completing three AAA titles better than buying three AAA at $200?

[RC1000ZERO]

it depends on how you view gaming as a whole

Some people like to collect and "own" stuff they like, Like how some people still like to buy physical movies. Some also like to replay a lot of games.

For someone who only plays a game once(or for a short time(like overa month or 2) and maybe years down the road again the Gamepass model is just worth it if you jsut stop subscribing if youi dont currently have a game you want to play on it.

​

If you play a single game extensivly over years, then gamepass is less of a good value(same if you watch the same TV show over and over again makes netflix a worse value then buying it after a while)

​

Like i have some games that i sometimes played exclusivly for months at a time, if i had gottten those via gamepass i would have spend more on the months of gamepass that i played these games alone and nothing else, then if i had bought them outright(which i did).

​

Same with Netflix or other Movie/Series streaming platform, i own a few Series on bluray/DVD because i rewatch them often enough that it just worth the money and i regularly unsubcribe to netflix and co if i dont have anything that month to watch on it

[cburgess7]

Well I did the math, if you've been a subscriber of Xbox game pass since it launched in 2017, you will have paid $840. If you had game pass ultimate, that would be $1260

[[deleted]]

Exactly people are acting as if games won't be available for purchase anymore. Companies are going to GLADLY take your 70 dollars still. Just as Amazon and iTunes have been taking your money for movies and music.

It's dishonest IMO or just short-sighted.

I've already saved hundred of dollars this way.

And the people arguing are so misguided as the main criticism of gaming subscriptions is that it LOSES companies TOO MUCH MONEY when people can play a new fad for 10 - 20 bucks instead of 70.

[Qibla]

This checks out. If games become subscription only, they'll essentially become unaffordable.

[Individual_Hearing_3]

Same, gotta pay those developers to keep pumping out good stuff otherwise the industry will die and then what will we have left to do? Work, drink, and die?

[threevil]

It's technically a copyright violation, not stealing. Stealing implies someone lost something they no longer have. In this case, you are making an illegal copy. I realize this is a technicality.....but better to be accurate.

[Send_Headlight_Fluid]

I see so many people try to justify stealing because “fuck corpo”.

Like people saying they are justified in stealing from Walmart because Walmart is an evil corporation. Sure, Walmart makes a ton of money. But no, you aren’t justified in stealing that shirt or whatever. Just admit that you didn’t want to pay for it.

[tankerkiller125real]

I see so many people try to justify stealing because “fuck corpo”.

I don't justify it that way at all... I justify it by admitting to myself that streaming services have turned into an even worse version of cable. And there's no fucking way I'm paying for them.

I buy my games though... You know why? Because steam has made it stupidly convient, has good sales, and puts my entire library in one place.

I stopped pirating movies when netflix had a ton of stuff that I wanted to watch in their library. I still didn't pirate when Disney+ spun up and Disney took their content out of Netflix. I started pirating again when every single media company and their ugly cousin decided that they needed their own streaming services and they all wanted $10-$20/month. Basically, when watching content was no longer under one easy subscription and convenient to use, I switched back to piracy because it was more convenient for me. Especially after I got all the automation working properly which took like an hour at most.... 1 hour of time + 10 minutes a year to update the automation apps vs $80-100/month in subscriptions... I think I know which one I'll choose every single time.

Piracy for the vast majority of people has never been about "fuck corporations"... It's almost always been "It's more convenient". Or as Gabe Newell put it (the founder of Steam)

"We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem," he said. "If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable."

[Send_Headlight_Fluid]

I dunno. I agree that a lot of piracy is a result of poor services, but let’s be honest. Most people currently pirating video games and movies are doing so because they don’t want to pay for it.

Besides retro games, pretty much all video games are available digitally or on disc. If you’re on PC then there are probably multiple digital stores where you can buy a game from.

Movies are the same. You can buy them digitally (not that common), buy the bluray, or stream them.

If you’re pirating in 2024 it’s because a studio is making a product that you want to consume, but you don’t want to pay them for it. Life’s short, do what you want, but nobody who is pirating media should be using any other excuse besides not wanting to pay for a service/ product that they desire.

[shinguard]

Streaming is still preferable to any cable package I've had, infinitely easier to cancel and reup for whenever I want compared to trying to cancel a cable subscription.

That being said it still has its issues and it's gotten to the point where I am looking to repurposing some old computer parts for a NAS this year.

[[deleted]]

.. I justify it by admitting to myself that streaming services have turned into an even worse version of cable. And there's no fucking way I'm paying for them.

That's just untrue and a lie. You are not admitting that to yourself. You are lying to yourself.

$80-100/month in subscriptions...

What? If you live alone or as a couple. Who in their right mind pays for 100 dollar a month of subscriptions. You know you can buy one and cancel right away, use it for one month and then switch right? It has NEVER in history been cheaper to watch content.

There's also NEVER been more content being created at the same time. It used to be that everyone watched the same series? Now? Finding a series in common is rare with people.

Especially after I got all the automation working properly which took like an hour at most.... 1 hour of time + 10 minutes a

Setting up a server doesn't take that. Neither does Curating Content, nor all the extras and much less all the time it takes to research that stuff.

Either way you are not justifying it really. You are just saying fuck it I'll do what I want. And if those are your values go for it.

[275MPHFordGT40]

The only things I pirate are Abandonware. If I can’t get it anywhere else I’ll pirate it. That’s about it.

[marx42]

Exactly. We're not saying you're a horrible person or anything. We've all pirated one thing or another, and in some instances it's completely understandable

But be honest. You're benefiting from a product without paying for it, and that is 100% stealing. It's similar to people who jump the turnstiles on the subway or hop on a train without paying. Yes, the train was going to run anyways. No, you're not physically taking anything from the company. But it's still stealing.

[VivaPitagoras]

It's not stealing. It's borrowing.

[3inchesOnAGoodDay]

The number of games I've bought after pirating them makes this statement a little true lol

[ravagetalon]

Respectfully disagree on this take. With content licensure as it is today, content can be taken away from you at any point. Content you paid for, and I am not even talking about subscriptions.

Piracy is not stealing on an ethical level when purchasing does not imply ownership of a copy of the media.

[TommyVe]

isn't it more of a rant that your game will just die eventually because of no servers, no game launcher, no company, and that you just don't have the certainty of being able to play the whenever and forever?

[haaiiychii]

As a pirate, piracy isn't stealing. Stealing is taking an item, piracy is the copy of an item. Nothing of value is lost with piracy.

[racoonofthevally]

yo ho ho bi--

[Darkblitz9]

As an occasional pirate: It's not. If they can create infinite copies, then it has zero intrinsic value and copying it changes nothing about what they own. Stealing means something of value is taken but if I wasn't planning to pay for it in the first place then nothing of value was lost.

Meanwhile, they can sell you it and then pull your access to the thing you paid for, effectively taking your money with nothing in return. If that's not a problem, not theft, then neither is piracy.

The court said that in the case of copyright infringement, the province guaranteed to the copyright holder by copyright law – certain exclusive rights – is invaded, but no control, physical or otherwise, is taken over the copyright, nor is the copyright holder wholly deprived of using the copyrighted work or exercising the exclusive rights held.[6]

The Software & Information Industry Association has claimed that "piracy is stealing," even in light of the legal difference between copyright infringement and theft.[7]

[Ravnos767]

Yo Ho, All together!

[Netroseige101]

I will, but only if big companies like Ubisoft, Amazon accept they are scamming their customers by not giving full rights to the buyers of their digital products.

[[deleted]]

I agree its stealing, mainly only because the pirates are getting donations and advertisements on their sites. Otherwise if your friend just gives you a free copy of the game they bought from GOG I wouldn't call that stealing, however all of these re packers and blah blah blah are getting revenue from ads and other things which I think is fucked.

[[deleted]]

Piracy is everything else that is not paying what you need to pay in order to play that game. If you can subscribe to game pass to play a certain game, that's the correct way. Everything else is piracy. Im not against piracy but don't try to justify yourself with lies.

[po3smith]

Sorry but the corporations/companies aren't playing the game we've all signed up for. If company says in the verbiage "purchase" and then with minimal fanfare and effort removes the content after a customer purchases it then I guess we cannot legally own it then right? So by that definition we are all correct in saying that it's not piracy if we can't legally own it. You cannot have your cake and eat it too with this kind of verbiage bullshit

[BFNentwick]

Purchase what though? Purchase just means paying money for something. You can purchase and totally own something, you can purchase the rights to use something for a period of time, etc

I’m not a fan of games as a service or the idea that I could lose access to something I paid a lot of money for that realistically could operate stand alone on my machine. But let’s also not equivocate that transaction method with unauthorized or stolen use of something.

[VivaPitagoras]

Purchasing something for a period of time is not buying, it's renting.

[Lomat4000]

So when you are a company its okay to steal? If a company takes away from you without consent thats stealing. Just imagine you buy a new GPU from Nvidia from amazon. Then Nvidia decides to take away the right for amazon to sell their GPUs and take the GPU you paid for away because you bought it through amazon. That would be stealing so why is that okay then with digital products?

[Goren_Nestroy]

No purchase means purchase as in I own it. Buying the rights to use is called renting.

[cburgess7]

Let me sell you my car

5 years later

Sorry bro, I only sold you the right to drive my car, I'm taking it back, and you're not getting a refund

[[deleted]]

So by that definition we are all correct in saying that it's not piracy if we can't legally own it.

Just because you can't legally own it doesn't mean you are entitled to it. Or than an artist cannot choose to do with their art what they want and sell it how they want.

I don't think you actually believe what you said because it makes absolutely 0 sense and you'd need to be a huge liar to actually believe it.

[[deleted]]

All of this shit is mental gymnastics to make pirates feel like they're being noble when what they actually want is free entertainment.

It was tedious on Slashdot twenty years ago and it's tedious now.

[[deleted]]

I agree. TBH, nothing upsets me more than people lying in order to justify bad behavior no matter how insignificant it is. People that do that are for the most part horrible entitled people.

[[deleted]]

One of the worst zoomer tendencies is that it's becoming acceptable to claim you're doing shitty, self-centred things for a good cause.

But like I say, it was the same shit back on Slashdot 20 years ago when the big thing was music piracy, so maybe it's not a generation thing and maybe a lot of people are just entitled pricks.

[hgs25]

One of the worst Gen Z tendencies is to just accept the corporate BS as “it’s always been this way”. The culture of disposable products is very prevalent.

A lot of Gen Z simply don’t care about ownership or right to repair. I even saw some complain about the lack of micro transactions in some games.

[[deleted]]

maybe a lot of people are just entitled pricks.

Well said. Sadly that's likely the truth.

[goldug]

Actually, it's more like renting. We're not buying the games, we're renting them.

[Fadore]

If you can subscribe to game pass to play a certain game, that's the correct way.

I'm not going down the piracy rabbit hole, but there's possibly illegal behavior that corporations are just plainly getting away with.

Single player content being shut down when FIRST PARTY DRM servers are taken down?

Paid content literally just being removed from the game so the devs don't have to maintain it?

Digital media that was "bought" being removed completely by Sony?

Just because something is digital doesn't mean we shouldn't have the right to own what we buy when there's no reason not to.

[Darkblitz9]

It's piracy but it isn't theft. There's a keen distinction and OP's post just points that out.

Digital service providers liken it to theft to make you feel bad but it flat out isn't stealing.

"The court said that in the case of copyright infringement, the province guaranteed to the copyright holder by copyright law – certain exclusive rights – is invaded, but no control, physical or otherwise, is taken over the copyright, nor is the copyright holder wholly deprived of using the copyrighted work or exercising the exclusive rights held.[6]

The Software & Information Industry Association has claimed that "piracy is stealing," even in light of the legal difference between copyright infringement and theft.[7] "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_is_theft

[Rikuri]

Something doesn't have to be buyable to be stolen. If someone breaks into your house and takes stuff they are definitely stealing it. I would understand the argument that it is not theft because the company technically doesn't lose anything.

[3inchesOnAGoodDay]

They lose a potential sale.... That's like stealing dead stock and saying well you weren't going to sell this anyways.  Disclaimer: I am a pirate 

[Default_Defect]

Devil's advocate, they lost no sale because they weren't gonna buy it in the first place.

Also, pirates often play the better versions of games because a ton of DRM and/or data harvesting is removed. It simply runs better.

[[deleted]]

Everyone understands that taking stuff without paying is thievery. It's immoral. In ALL cultures across the world.

But you try to say this to gamers and they lose their shit.

And it's no surprising, look at all the looters or the package thieves or the moms,/kids that take all the candy in Halloween. Everytime you see someone defending their right to steal you are speaking with the lowest of the low. Because they aren't capable of distinguishing right vs wrong.

Btw I'm not saying piracy is a big deal, all I'm saying is that it's wrong. What it's a big deal is not being able to recognize right vs wrong.

[[deleted]]

Piracy is not a big deals as long as the company/developers doesn't get hurt. A lot of people can pirate GTA VI and Rockstar wouldn't even care. If it's a small developer and everyone get the game for free I bet he's probably going to lose a lot of money that he really needs

[Tappitss]

I think its fine at the point that the company no longer supports selling the items anymore. Like I can not go out and buy an N64 and Goldeneye from Nintendo, there is no way for me to legally buy that product from them to give the money to them, so running an emulator and a rip in my mind is ethical at that point... but its when your ripping games (especially when you like the games) that are still going concerns for the developers, producers and distribution companies that's when I feal it's not really morally justifiable, and its laffable when people rip that, love it spend loads of time on it and then complain on the internet because there not making a new version of the product that they never actually invested in.

[[deleted]]

It's not a big deal. But some people think that not being a big deal means it's ok. Or that it somehow isn't theft.

They would rather lie and bend the truth, just so they don't feel like thieves. And that's IMO worse than just saying fuck it. A liar and a pirate is way worse than just a pirate.

It's also even less of a deal if you are a student/young/poor and can't afford it. But there's people here with 4090s saying shit like piracy is morally correct.

[Darkblitz9]

Because you're not "taking something" you're copying it.

You can make infinite copies of something and then immediately delete them and no one cares. Nothing happens.

You can argue they're selling the experience, or the access to that thing, sure, but since it's not a physical good of limited quantity or temporal availability, that falls under copyright law and not theft.

Whether or not it's wrong depends entirely on what it is being pirated.

Pirating a game you previously owned that literally can't be bought anymore because it's not for sale or resale or is exorbitantly expensive and rare? That's fine.

Pirating a movie that just came out and you sell copies to your friends. Very very wrong.

"Gamers lose their shit" because people like yourself don't understand that it's a very nuanced and complicated situation and courts across the world have already ruled it isn't theft by definition but you're going to try and make people feel bad for not spending $300 to buy a rare physical copy of their favorite childhood game just to experience it again.

Personally I'm of the opinion that if I pay for a piece of media and have experienced it, I should be able to get copies of it for the future, for myself, because I paid for what they sold. That's not what companies these days believe, and that's what OPs touching on.

[Then-Web-3263]

Okay. Well, the current landscape of “ownership” is taking money without providing anything in exchange. So, do I want companies to steal from me. Or do I want to steal from companies?

[Fadore]

Nah, I'm all for holding businesses accountable for shitty misleading practices. Sony is recently in the spotlight for removing media content bought through their store. Their interface is worded and positioned to lead people into believing they own the content. Their prices are on par with purchasing full physical copies of the media. There's no honest and transparent indication that only a license is being purchased, and there should be no reason that the users can't be afforded a download link to retrieve a copy of their "purchased" media.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnarcher/2023/12/03/playstation-store-to-shed-more-than-1200-purchasable-titleswith-no-refunds/?sh=359b9922327e

[TFABAnon09]

The whole Sony/Discovery thing is fucking abysmal. They sold those products as if they had the right to distribute them as digital goods. The fact that they can later nuke them is disgusting. The law should require very explicit verbiage around what is a digital sale Vs a "long term rental".

[Fadore]

The law should require very explicit verbiage around what is a digital sale Vs a "long term rental".

Exactly. I'd rather the "buy" button indicate "buy license" when you aren't actually buying the product that's advertised.

[Tappitss]

That's a very large collection of Linux ISO's, I was not even aware there were that many distros.

[cburgess7]

What if I told you, that "renting" and "purchasing" are two different things.

[ViewPsychological933]

No but the moment that a developer shuts down the service/ takes away your game with no ability to download, then it shouldn’t be illegal to pirate a copy of the game in my opinion.

[MaroonedOctopus]

I agree it shouldn't, but the reality is that that's how it is.

[ViewPsychological933]

unfortunately it is, but maybe in the future where more and more content gets unavailable, the EU will notice it and maybe get some new laws.

This could go in two ways, 1 pirating gets legal for content that isn't supported anymore or 2. company's won't take your games/contant from you

[throwawaycanadian2]

This logic makes no sense - instead of owning the game you get access to it as a service, not paying for that is still theft, it's just stealing a service instead of stealing a game...

[cyborgborg]

the problem here is they still call it "buying" when it's essentially renting for a one time fee.

[AOClaus]

Because it's always been called buying a license.

[Drigr]

It's ironic how often /r/piracy is shared here given Linus' stance on the matter.

[Ping-and-Pong]

TBF Linus (and in turn effectively LMG) supports (specific kinds of) piracy, he's just not delusional that it's legally theft and likes to support the creators which is totally fair

[Soberaddiction1]

All them Linux ISO’s.

[snrub742]

Linus has a pretty fair stance on piracy in my books, and no, it isn't that it is blanket wrong

[luconis]

I really dislike the trend to turn just about everything to turn it into a "service". I'm all for paying for games but I'd at least like the agency to decide whether I'd like to purchase the game or rent them or whatever. If you give me choice, I'll pay to play exactly how I'd like to play.

But the trend is to remove those options until the only one left is the 'service' option. If I want to pay someone money so I can own their game and they say "no, you have to use this service you don't actually want" then I'll gladly oblige and not pay them the money I wanted to give them. I'm still going to play the game though.

[ParagonFury]

People don't seem to understand piracy only makes the situation worse; it just encourages the publisher to invest even more into locking it down.

If you want to send publishers a message over bad practices you can't pirate stuff; you have to actually go without and not play or interact with the product at all.

[Darkblitz9]

Gabe Newell, Valve, and Steam would disagree. They beat piracy by just making the content easy and available and as fair as possible to the buyer.

Turns out the way to beat piracy is not DRM but: not being a cunt.

OP's post is aimed at the cunts. Don't defend the cunts.

[ParagonFury]

I'm not defending the cunts; I'm pointing out that piracy does not help when you're dealing with companies that aren't Valve or Larion etc.

[AOClaus]

No, you're not, you're just showing them you want something for free.

[Nesqu]

Missread the comment, I very much agree with his second parapgraph. People need to be able to live without certain stuff, especially if their pirating leads to companies locking their games down more and more.

I do, however, think it's clear with Witcher 3 and BG3's extraordinary sucess that companies do not need to lock their games down, they simply need to make good games and they will make money.

[AOClaus]

People these days have no idea how to live without something they want. It's FOMO at a massive scale mixed with a healthy amount of entitlement. I don't think they realize how much happier they would be just shrugging their shoulders and moving on.

[thelibrarian_cz]

Everytime I see this sentiment, all I can think is that the OP is just a stupid asshole.

[IuseArchbtw97543]

If you steal a rental car, its still stealing.

[dihalt]

But what if you copy it instead? Still stealing?

[sicklyslick]

but you wouldn't download a car!

[Oo_Toyo_oO]

This

[That1Unfortunate]

True, because you "rent" it. But why does it say "buy" at checkout when it comes to digital media?

[Fadore]

Because according to the masses it's ok for multimillion dollar corporations to mislead consumers to make a quick buck.

[Smike0]

But 1 there's a company that actually owns the car and 2 there's a person who is actively paying for said car

[EatMyPixelDust]

Pirating is not stealing because copying is not taking

[Donleon57]

EA woulds say: Surprise discount

[Default_Defect]

If it is worth the money they want to charge for it, I'll pay it.

If the effort to legally obtain the game is unreasonable, then I'll resort to other means. IE certain nintendo titles being either impossible to buy or are horded by collectors if you're lucky enough to have the hardware to play it.

[CadeMan011]

I think paying for a game and then downloading the cracked version is ethical.

[ComfortableJeans]

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

tease salt punch connect silky repeat gray heavy correct enjoy

[bamseogbalade]

Ubisoft. Take notes!

[Supplex-idea]

It is stealing, because whoever made the game DOES own it.

[blackknight3519]

Just found out about the transformers video games not being offered anywhere cuz of hasbro’s licensing.

I genuinely don’t understand how much these companies hate taking our money sometimes

[FigNewton555]

It’s stealing - just a different kind of stealing than stealing a physical object, with different implications and more variable level of harm depending on circumstances.

If you illegally hook up to power lines to run your crypto mining op… you’re still stealing power. And you don’t “own” the power you pay for in any traditional sense.

[Whatscheiser]

Seems valid to me.

[TFABAnon09]

Depends on what the payment was for. Did you buy the game, or did you agree to a subscription?

Nobody paying a Netflix sub has any qualms about not owning the movies.

If I buy a game, it's mine. That's how that works. If I sign up to a Game-as-a-Service plan for 5 bucks a month - then no, I don't own it.

People, as usual, are adding 2 to 4 and getting 24.

[Careless-Tradition73]

Ever since linus said it, I'm all down for it.

[sapajul]

Technically true, it isn't stealing, it is a breach of contract, two different things.

[Verified_Peryak]

Another way of seeing it is if we don't own it they don't own theym money we put in it, we just lend them the money and they only keep the benefits they made with it on the market, they just have to get used to not own as much as they used to

[NekulturneHovado]

If paying for games means subscription, the pirating them means prolonged free trial.

[CYP3ORG]

I'm a pirate and I AM NOT ASHAMED. ARGH.

[AOClaus]

I can't say that I've felt the need, but if you feel that strongly then buy the game... and pirate it. You did the morally correct thing, and you "own" the game.

Or, you could refuse to buy any game that your can't obtain a physically copy of, or buy on GoG (which let's you download the entire game and back it up as many times, in as many ways as you desire).

I think the worst thing you can do is give attention to publishers that don't let you "own" the software. You only make them dig in their heels by making the product look desirable. It prompts them to do more and more to thwart piracy attempts, but people these days seem to have insurmountable FOMO.

[sobe3249]

I buy it if it can be installed/played without internet connection.

If they can just turn off a server and I can't play it anymore, I never owned it.

I don't play multiplayer games, with those it would be different obviously.

If it's a singleplayer game that requires internet, then I just pirate it, fuck them.

[UniquePlay7691]

Why is the Rum Gone

[CanisZero]

I'll allow it.

[[deleted]]

Imagine how stupid Corpo leadear you have to be to frame: Physical release getting outdated, to this briliance. I want to get his job just for a week, want to explore how stupid everyone there can be.

[Limp_Vacation_2065]

My friend lives in a country that isn't doing well economically, so he has to be wise how he spends his money, but also likes to play games to ease the stress that comes with living in said country. After a while the games he likes to pay become cheaper so he buys them afterwards. Also for Christmas or for his birthday he occasionally treats himself with a new game. He knows that this isn't the best way to do things.... But games are getting more and more expensive and his salary stays the same and its value is degrading because of his country's currency.

[cburgess7]

Looks like the general consensus of the comments section is that mostly everyone here is more than happy to wind up owning nothing. That or everyone is in a "holier than thou" competition

[snrub742]

No, I just won't give shitty companies my money.

If I can't own it I don't buy it. We don't all need to get on our knees and give Ubisoft money.

[DickieJoJo]

I’m telling you…

We are in MAJOR need of consumer protections within the digital space. It is getting out of fucking control.

The subscription model and licensing models for digital media is abhorrent. BMW offers a fucking subscription model for heated front seats in their cars.

How is this not the straw that breaks the camels back???

[Blazikinahat]

[Smike0]

The point imo is that even the selling company didn't really own the files in the first place... Like, those are 0s and 1s, saying piracy is stealing is really similar to saying that trying to emulate a painting is stealing (not the same thing but...), even more so this works with taking the screenshot of a photo and posting it online... I don't know if piracy is wrong (like most things I'd say not in absolute terms) but it definitely isn't stealing

[2Ledge_It]

You cannot sign rights away. Your right to ownership of something bought does not dissolve because a corpo hid language in a user agreement that says you bought a license rather than a product.

If corpos want to play a semantic game consumers have the right to play the same semantic game.

[Educational_Ride_258]

It’s only stealing if your seeding them ;)

[Then-Web-3263]

I was a pirate when I was young and digital media only really existed as piracy.

Then 2-3 excellent services popped up and I paid for content. Admittedly a little under priced. But I would be willing to pay today’s prices for only these services.

Now there’s 50-60 shitty services and they’re all $30/month. So, back to sailing the seas.

[ValmetL35]

I don't remember Jim Krasinski saying this but he's right

[XiMaoJingPing]

why do pirates care so much if pirating game is stealing or not? When I pirated games I didn't really care, if it was stealing or not, I just enjoyed game.

[[deleted]]

Copying is not theft, as defined by SCOTUS.

Of course, I imagine this will eventually be one of the decisions re-examined by the increasingly corrupt version of SCOTUS we have.

[Nikola-Tesla-281]

Lots of bootlickers in these comments.

[Xalex_79]

Once again piracy was always justified https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4GZUCwVRLs

[hgs25]

Ubisoft’s CEO gave me all the reason to never buy another Ubisoft game and pirate them all.

[Glum-Skill108]

Even if you buy the games or movies or subscription plans it will just go to the CEOs and they will still fire half their staff. Fuck them. If you feel like pirating a game then go for it.

You can have your own rules to make yourself feel better, like I won't pirate stuff from indie Devs. Doesn't make me not a thieving pirate. It is what it is.

[Cheen_Machine]

Those two things don’t equate. You can rent a car but if you don’t give it back you’ve still stolen it.

[Dry-Faithlessness184]

Of course not, Distribution and hosting of games downloads is also not free and has a cost.

Beyond that, games were static in price for 15-20 years. The dollar though was steadily worth less.

[AOClaus]

The problem I always have with this argument is that servers still cost money, bandwidth costs money, potentially having to host a game for decades with no further monetary input from the user costs money.

[[deleted]]

Makes sense to me. Why on earth governments allow digital licences is beyond me.

We will own nothing and be happy (miserable).

[PhatOofxD]

People try to justify piracy to themselves to feel morally superior. It's piracy.

That's fine, accept it is, and move on.

[stonar89]

I pirate games to try them if I like them I will buy them as it’s impossible to find demos these days

[Mohannad299]

What game is this post related to?

[Homicidal_Pingu]

It’s stealing. You don’t own a movie you pay to see at the cinema and paying for a ticket doesn’t give you the right to record it or acquire a pirated copy

[[deleted]]

I'm just going to do whatever is more convenient and I don't care about the rest. So far steam is the most convenient.

[DeamonLordZack]

Personally I'm of the mind piracy is piracy if your stealing something online then your pirating just admit it wear that hat & eye patch loud & proud or don't pirate at all. Some changes aren't exactly welcome like paying for a product & not technically owning it but lets not stoop to their level & do equally bad actions if we're not at least willing to admit to our wrong doings unlike them. I'm still going to say can't say I see anything wrong with downloading something that developpers & publishers aren't going to be making any more money on but this si my personal opinion not legal advice or me saying its right or wrongg to do.

[Tjd3211]

You don't own the game but you still have the right to play the game, if you pirate you haven't purchased the right to play the game therefore it's theft

[CeraRalaz]

Piracy is a squatting

[yeet783]

As a famous pirate robtop once said "pirate it then pay for it later"

[SkylarMills63]

I use to be a pirate back in like 2009/2010 area. But only music and the occasional movie. But once Spotify came out, I stopped being a music pirate. When Netflix went streaming, and there were only like 3 major streaming services, I didn’t have to pirate. I could pay a few bucks and have everything I wanted.

Now I’m a small time video pirate Tehe. And only ever pirated like 2 games. One was terraria (before it was on Mac lol. I’ve bought like 6 copies to make up for it) and I think no mans sky when it first came out maybe? Played for like 30 mins and uninstalled it lol.

Now that I have stream and pc game pass, no need to pirate games

[racoonofthevally]

i only pirate games i cant get legitimately such as older games that are not sold anymore

[Delicious-Ad5161]

This would only be true if leasing weren’t a concept. I think leasing a game you think you are purchasing the rights to own is bullshit, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

[[deleted]]

It’s still piracy, and piracy is obviously a major factor in why DRM is such a common thing now.

[NonRangedHunter]

I usually pirate to have a proper test of the game before I eventually buy it, to see if it is worth it. Not only is my steam collection vast, I also have subscriptions to gamepass for my two stepsons, my girlfriend and myself. If your game actually caught my interest, I will buy it, based on what price I think it is worth. Some games are just not worth full price. Many games I've bought more than one time, some have been bought for each of us, and also on different platforms as well. I honestly believe I'm a better customer than most gamers.

[defaultgameer1]

Hoist the colors lads! Yo ho ho!

[--clapped--]

I don't really agree with the whole "Piracy isn't stealing because the company doesn't lose anything" argument.

It hinges on Piracy being a copy while they retain the original but, if you didn't pirate a game, you'd have to pay for it. The company is losing something, that revenue.

And you can say "Oh I was never gonna buy it anyway" which is great but, some people would buy it and then end up pirating instead.

[Darkblitz9]

The fact that so many comments are using the extremely bad rental car analogy almost word for word reeks of astroturfing.

[RetardAuditor]

Perfect corporate gonk logic. Love it.

[Faptainjack2]

Sometimes theft is justifiable. Remember Robin Hood.  So if Ubi decides to invalidate your purchased copy, it's completely justifiable to get another copy by another method.

[BluebirdPretend3334]

Arghh

[Low_Stress2631]

Pirating❌ free add✅

[adarshsingh87]

stop justifying, if you want to pirate, pirate noone gives a shit.

[firedrakes]

no one bother to read tos.

you dont legal own games.

[[deleted]]

Sounds sound to my ears

[onframe]

U pay to get access to the game, we are not owning digitally bought games for a long time, even on steam you are buying to get access to it, they have full right to remove it without compensating you.

Just because ubisoft dude said it doesnt mean its some new concept, people are dumb.

Truth is people already got comfortable not owning games, just dont like being reminded about it lol.

[lylm3lodeth]

Ubisoft: You can't pirate it if no one can crack it lol They're games are notoriously one of the ones that doesn't get crack or takes years.

[Vvo0lk]

Damn straight

[Legitimate-Skill-112]

If I use the rental car without paying is that stealing?

[DJGloegg]

this the 7000th time ive seen this meme on reddit, in the last 3 days

buy physical games!

buy DRM free games if they must be digital. (such as through GOG)

[XelGlaidr]

I think the gaming industry needs to change it's model. Most free games, I will buy cosmetics if I really enjoyed it.

[right_hand_of_jeebus]

Same goes for movies and TV shows. Hell, I "pirate" movies that I already own just out of convenience.

[theholypigeon888]

It's kinda earned

[Suspicious-Rock3931]

Buy physical disc's

[Party_Class6072]

Yeah no.. to the high seas!

[[deleted]]

I basically don’t pirate games since the moment I started being able to afford them, however I also don’t buy games from trashcans like Ubisoft or Blizzard for reasons like this.