• Zoolander@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    It is stealing. I don’t understand the mental gymnastics here. You’re stealing income from whoever created the content if you’re not paying them for your ability to watch it.

    • Refurbished Refurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org
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      10 months ago

      How are you stealing income if there was no intention to pay the company to begin with? Even if there was an intention to buy it, companies aren’t entitled to consumers’ money. This is especially the case if the consumer has previously purchased a license to consume the product, and then the company decides to take (or steal) it away. No moral qualms with pirating the same content then.

      It’s digital data; you’re copying something, leaving the original completely intact. It’s not like a physical BluRay, where if you steal it from a store, you are making that store lose money due to that physical stock being stolen.

      And lastly, how is the company not stealing from consumers when they pull shit like this?

      • Zoolander@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Even if there was an intention to buy it, companies aren’t entitled to consumers’ money.

        Then you’re not entitled to ingest the content being created by that “company” (doesn’t have to be a company, it could be a single artist or a small group of artists).

        Taking away licenses is wrong. I’m not disputing that. But that doesn’t magically make stealing something that actual people created right.

        • archomrade [he/him]
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          10 months ago

          Then you’re not entitled to ingest the content being created by that “company” (doesn’t have to be a company, it could be a single artist or a small group of artists).

          Are you making an ethical, moral, or legal statement here?

          Ownership of intangibles in this context exists only as a means to support a particular political arrangement. I think you may be assuming others here share your politics; there is no objective moral standard for exclusive ownership of intangibles.

          • Zoolander@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            By that argument, there is no moral imperative for people to create intangibles as they have no value. If someone creates art that you like, they deserve to be paid for the time and effort it took to create that art whether the art itself is physically tangible or not. If you don’t agree to that premise, then there’s no point in discussing this with you.

            • archomrade [he/him]
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              10 months ago

              there is no moral imperative for people to create intangibles as they have no value.

              You’re right, there is no moral imperative for people to create (or share) intangibles, but nobody is claiming they have no value.

              If someone creates art that you like, they deserve to be paid for the time and effort it took to create that art whether the art itself is physically tangible or not.

              Again, is this a ethical, moral, or legal statement? It strikes me as a uniquely ideological statement, but you’ve not elaborated.

              • Zoolander@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                Everyone arguing that it’s not stealing is making the claim that it has no value.

                Why does it matter? I would consider it moral and ethical but have no care whether it’s a legal one. I’m not disputing the legality of anything here (since I believe that the subject of the OP is also illegal - “Buying” something denotes ownership and, therefore, taking it away is also stealing).

                Additionally, I do not have objections against piracy and think there are many legitimate reasons for it. I am only arguing against the mischaracterization and dishonesty of claiming that it is not stealing.

                • archomrade [he/him]
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                  10 months ago

                  Everyone arguing that it’s not stealing is making the claim that it has no value.

                  Are you trying to conflate ‘value’ with ‘extractive market value’? There are lots of things that have innate value but have no or very little market value.

                  Why does it matter? I would consider it moral and ethical but have no care whether it’s a legal one.

                  It matters if anyone cares to understand what you’re actually asserting, since you’ve again claimed ‘I am only arguing against the mischaracterization and dishonesty of claiming that it is not stealing’. How can anyone understand what you mean without knowing what you take ‘stealing’ to mean, and why it matters?

                  Most people here would argue that a system that relies on exclusive ownership of ideas/digitally reproducible data in order to support those who do that labor (that we all benefit from) is one that is broken. In which case ‘stealing’ would be misplacing both to whom the harm being done and the party doing the harm, because it isn’t the fault of the artist or the consumer that the system withholds the means of living from those who are unable to justify their existence through labor.

                  • Zoolander@lemmy.world
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                    10 months ago

                    That’s all irrelevant. I’m not making some hypothetical point. Whether you agree with “the system” or not, it is the system within which we live and operate and within which people need to make a living. It doesn’t matter whose fault it is. What matters is that someone is being deprived of something by someone who found value in a thing that the person created. If we accept that and attempt to justify as anything other than theft, then those people will cease to create themselves or will have to work further into the system that you’re arguing against as they will be unable to sustain themselves by creating things within that system.

                    If you want people to make more of the things you like, you have to pay them for those things. All the straw man arguments about DRM and corporations that attempt to justify piracy only further reinforce the current system rather than some imagined system.

                    Stealing has a definition. It means that you’re taking something from someone. If you can’t understand ‘stealing’ in its most basic form, then there’s no point in having a further discussion with you because you’re only pretending not to understand to justify behavior that benefits you.

    • null@slrpnk.net
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      10 months ago

      It is not stealing. The mental gymnastics are when you try to claim that it is.

      You’re stealing income from whoever created the content if you’re not paying them for your ability to watch it.

      It’s just as much “stealing” as me not watching it at all.

      I’m infringing on their copyright, absolutely, but I’m not taking anything away from them that they could otherwise profit from.

      • Zoolander@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        No it’s not. If you don’t pay for it, you don’t watch it. If they’re not entitled to your money, then you’re not entitled to the product of their time, effort, and labor.

        • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.works
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          10 months ago

          If i could just teleport into your house so i could liberate your keyboard, i would. Because your take is so collosally stupid that it actually angers me that you have it.

          Like real, palpable rage that this insipid argument still exists in this world, after all this time.

          • Zoolander@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Ahh yes… the tried and true ad-hominem. No actual argument against the point, just childish name-calling and insults. Grow the fuck up.

            • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.works
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              10 months ago

              An ad hominem would be if i avoided your point and instead attacked you as a person. I attacked the point itself as frivolous and years-debunked. Please… Listen… Your keyboard is suffering under the weight of false premise. Free it, please

              • Zoolander@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                You did not address the point at all. Nothing has been debunked. It cannot be debunked because it’s true - you are stealing something someone created, which they made in order to get paid and make a living, because you are ingesting it and not paying them.

                Stop being dishonest.

                • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.works
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                  10 months ago

                  Provide to me a copy/paste definition of “false premise” so i know you know more fallacies than “strawman” and “ad hominem”. If i feel you learned something today ill call our little tete a tete a win.

                  (That was ad-hominem)

                  • Zoolander@lemmy.world
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                    10 months ago

                    I don’t need to provide you with shit. Look at you, expecting to get someone else’s effort and time for free again. Thanks for proving you’re dishonest.

              • Zoolander@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                That’s not what ad-hominem is, “dude”. It’s still a superficial attack rather than an attack of the argument if there’s no substance to it to actually dispute the argument.

                • Psychodelic@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  ad-hominem (adj.): (of an argument or reaction) directed against a person rather than the position they are maintaining.

                  Why did I have to look this up for you?

                  Think of it this way, saying your argument is stupid is similar to saying your argument is not valid, not sound, etc. Your response should be “why is it stupid?” or what’s wrong with my way of thinking?", not “stop attacking me, I’m under attack!” At the very least, don’t misappropriate a logical fallacy that doesn’t apply.

                  • Zoolander@lemmy.world
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                    10 months ago

                    He clearly directed the attack at me since he wants to come into my house and smash my keyboard or whatever the fuck he said. Introducing pedantry to the mix isn’t useful or helpful.

                    The point is that he didn’t provide any counter to the argument. He’s done nothing to address the actual argument and has simply made an attack. I don’t need to argue the semantics of it unless they care to actually address the points I’m making.

        • null@slrpnk.net
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          10 months ago

          That’s a valid opinion. It doesn’t change the fact that the crime is copyright infringement, not theft.

          • Zoolander@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            I’m not arguing the legal or criminal semantics. I’m arguing the dishonest justification and misrepresentation of piracy. Piracy is stealing. You’re stealing income from the creator if you ingest their work without paying for it. I don’t care if people pirate things but admit that it’s stealing and move on.

            • null@slrpnk.net
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              10 months ago

              Piracy is stealing.

              No it is not. By any definition.

              You can think it’s morally wrong, that’s fine. But it simply, factually is not stealing.

              That’s the only point I’m making.

              • Zoolander@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                Then we’ll have to agree to disagree. It doesn’t matter how many levels of abstraction or semantics you hide it behind, you’re gaining from something made by another person without returning that gain (whether financially or otherwise) to that person.

                • null@slrpnk.net
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                  10 months ago

                  You’re welcome to disagree with any standardized definition you like. Seems like a pretty unwise thing to do, but that’s your prerogative.

                  • Zoolander@lemmy.world
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                    10 months ago

                    Someone else posted the definition of stealing in this thread elsewhere. If I gain something from someone without giving them what they’ve demanded in return, it’s stealing.

        • Venia Silente@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          No it’s not. If you don’t pay for it, you don’t watch it.

          A friend bought a movie, invited me and 12 other people to watch it. Are we supposed to be legally required to say no?