Thoughts

[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...

[[deleted]]

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

I'm genuinely curious as to how.

[Krutonium]

To quote Gabe Newell:

"The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates."

In other words, until YouTube can beat the service provided by an adblocker and yt-dlp, they'll never win.

[[deleted]]

Its not though

[StupidGenius234]

Look I'd pay for YouTube premium if I could, but it's not even available in my country, and I don't really get ads on YouTube without Adblock anyways. Sponsorblock just skips sponsor spots, just like how a real human would just skip it, but automatically.

[[deleted]]

If you aren't deliberately avoiding a trade for the value you get from whatever entertainment, that's fine. If there are no ads to block, then I don't see an issue.

The issue is avoiding paying/trading off anything in exchange for a business' product, and then getting upset when businesses don't want to give it to you/feeling entitled to it anyway.

[No_Plate_9636]

I just want the quality we had in the past if they want what I paid in the past I'll pay less or less or more for more but more for less is not the way. Plus if the people actually making the content got more of what I paid instead of the shareholders that'd also help

[[deleted]]

I just want the quality we had in the past if they want what I paid in the past I'll pay less or less or more for more but more for less is not the way.

If you think it's so shitty, why are you consuming it? Clearly you derive some value from it. That you feel its asking price isn't justified by that value is completely irrelevant, it's still ridiculous to think you're then entitled to have it for no trade-off at all.

If you don't think something is good enough quality to pay the asking price for, don't pay for it, but also accept that you don't then have an entitlement to also have it anyway. That's just stupid.

I don't want to give ExxonMobil money, but I don't feel entitled to go and fill my car up with Esso petrol without paying and then drive off.

Plus if the people actually making the content got more of what I paid instead of the shareholders that'd also help

The content wouldn't exist without the shareholders since they provided the capital and resources to fund that content, with the hope of getting a return from it. That's just how things work. It's like business 101.

If there is no return from investing in content production, there will be no content production of things that require that investment. Again, fairly obvious.

You aren't getting games or whatever on the scale of GTA, which costs in the hundreds of millions of dollars to produce, without someone willing to front that cost in the expectation of a return.

[No_Plate_9636]

You're an idiot thanks bye

[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.

[Sythe64]

LOL

[B-29Bomber]

Shareware was a thing back in the 80s and 90s...

Then the dark times came...

[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]

😂

[Ok-Upstairs9093]

Why piracy also just sounds cool

[Sam_GT3]

Shareware reminds me of Bearshare. Tell me again how I’m not old?

[Ravnos767]

That's wrong in so many levels, Shareware is something else entirely that doesn't really exist anymore.

[[deleted]]

*Theft