It's the lack of anti trust enforcement in the USA that causes this. There is little to no competition left in many markets.
this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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Is not about how much we have available, is about how much they think they can squeeze us.
they look at how most of us seem to be able to pay landlords and got jealous 😂
In the darkened boardroom of ShittyStreamingService, the presentation continues:
"....and so we've set our price at $15 per month. This is a reasonable price that everyone in our target demographics can afford."
What the numpties at ShittyStreamingService haven't considered is that yes, maybe I can afford $15 per month. But I can't afford it for each of the 7,836 different streaming/music/gaming services!!
Not only can I not afford 7,846 different platforms, but I don’t WANT to. I want simplicity. If p1racy is easier and simpler, why wouldn’t I choose it?
Is there a music service that is similar to Kodi or Stremio?
They don't assume we have unlimited money, they assume they'll make enough sales to justify making it (and paying all the people who made it).
Yeah, some companies are making ridiculous profits and underpaying staff. This isn't some pro-capitalism comment.
Taking things off of streaming platforms or not making old stuff otherwise available usually boils down to bureaucracy and legal stuff. Certain people need to be paid, or have the right to veto their content being sold, or stuff like that sometimes. And sometimes the companies have a legal obligation to either protect their IP or ensure things stay "offline".
I don't like it, but I know it's not always simple.
People don't. They're in massive debt.
Probably because consumers have made them billionaires.
simple, shareholders want infinite GROWTH 📈
Like other's have said, most don't care; however I believe there are some that are also disconnected from everything outside of their lives. They believe the distribution of wealth is linear when really it's more of a log function.
Now I’m going to say that playing games, listening to music, watching shows/movies and even reading books is a bit of a luxury.
That's our culture you're talking about. In my view, it's a human right.
Because "we" do, as evidenced by the people willing to pay the price(s)
They don't think you have disposable income. They don't care about you if you don't.
I'm about ready to start disposing of these fucks.
You seem to have a rather violent disposition...
The rich are actively trying to be yote into space. All we're saying is redirect their rockets to ensure they don't come home again.
Ha! Clever
Price your goods right up to what the market can bear. Business sense.
Don't pay parasitic corpos for somethingyou can get yourself for free... Also business sense IMHO
Big businesses couldn't care less about where the money comes from as long as it ends up in their pockets.
Only thing stopping them from sending hired thugs to your house to shake the change out your pockets is the law. And even then they might try if the profit outweighs the penalty.
Hell, some companies will still hire pinkertons
"Only thing stopping them from sending hired thugs to your house to shake the change out your pockets is the law. "
This is how I feel about ads. Ads are legal psychological warfare with the sole aim of stealing your money.
Boeing whistleblower blower
What pisses me off the most with the entertainment industry, is how they expect you to buy the same things whether it’s a different format or on a platform multiple times.
No, they don't. Yes, there are the people who will buy every single release of every single disney movie. But the general idea is that just because someone bought The Fifth Element on DVD twenty years ago doesn't mean they are buying every single new 4k UHD re-release. Obviously that would be preferable but...
Furthermore, they willingly take away shows, movies .etc on a reguar cyclic basis on streaming platforms.
That annoys the piss out of me. But... that was how TV worked for decades. Seinfeld will always be on at 7 PM on TBS every single day until the end of time. But the three people who actually liked Coach? Once that got replaced by... Becker? It was "gone forever" and no longer something you watch when you are skipping school at lunch. And if you were REALLY a Wings superfan? You bought it on tape.
Most of this boils down to... we actually have it REALLY good these days. I remember when I had to make it a point to stop off at Best Buy on my way home from work for a month because I had read that a really cool CRPG called "Evil Islands" was coming out and knew that Best Buy would buy like three copies. And some random soccer mom was likely to buy something for her kid while she was buying batteries. And, of course, Best Buy wouldn't tell anyone when they got new games and when they would put them on the shelves.
Now? I can hear about my dream game and still wait until a week or two after launch for a sale because Steam will "never" run out of copies.
It’s like, leave us the fuck alone. If something is not available anymore with absolutely no assured plans to bring it back for re-release and to be available on even streaming platform which leaves us to pirate - let it fucking be. What, are you going to make a shitstorm for people who buy movies and shows while thrifting? Surprised these fuckers haven’t gotten to that process yet because of how god damn greedy they are.
I personally have no problem pirating shit if I can't get it otherwise (mostly because I would rather a proper blu-ray rip or to have it on Steam/GoG/whatever). But I will always call bullshit on that mentality of "We are just pirating because we can't get it otherwise!"
Decade or two back and abandonware was very much a thing. Plenty of us were signed up to private trackers so we could share CyClones or Star Crusader because those were dead games. And plenty of those trackers had specific rules about not having anything that is currently for sale... or Nintendo... because they totally were about preservation and it was nothing about getting sued. Then CD Projekt start up this Good Old Games site and it is exactly what we were all asking for. And... that led to discussions on what happens when suddenly those old dos games ARE available.
End result? GoG rips are the preferred medium because they are DRM-free(-ish) and so forth. And it was obvious it was never about preservation and was just about wanting to pirate shit. Which... is fine. Just obnoxious when people pretend they are noble because they want to play Darklands without paying.
Which is kind of the other recurring theme. People want to be pirates. Cool, steal that shit. Just don't pretend you are morally superior and a freedom fighter and blah blah blah. You want free shit. Cool.
My reasons for pirating varies by the context, however. Sometimes, I'm pirating something for morals & freedom, while other times it is because I would rather pay money for it but the only option is a DRMed one (and yes Steam is a form of DRM if it requires Steam to play), whilst other times I just pirate it because I don't wanna pay for it.
So, yes, depending on the context, someone can be a pirate for reasons other than "pirate".
Bottom-line is that while I agree with you that people shouldn't kid themselves if they're just being a pirate for pirating's sake, I think you also shouldn't ridicule others who are pirating for less-selfish motivations, at least during instances when that is their sole, or at least primary, motivation.
Tl;dr – Shit's complex yo.
If you want to accomplish a noble cause like preservation I don't think it's disingenuous to also satisfy some personal desires along the way. Easier to get people on board to do it if you do.
The issue is when those preservation efforts completely undermine themselves. That is why I specifically highlighted abandonware becoming "upload all your gog installers". When your "noble" intentions are predicated on not being able to buy a game or the DRM being too invasive and then you immediately encourage people to buy drm-free games and upload them to remind the companies WHY drm exists?
There is also very much the question of whether it even IS digital preservation to have a version 2.0 copy of a game that has had massive balance and even mechanic shifts over the past few years. Or a predominantly multiplayer game where botmatches were an afterthought. But at least that is a philisophical debate. Rather than just "gimme that Stranglehold"
They know we can't. They need to tell their shareholders this though lest they gnash their teeth.
Just a reminder if you want free books / audiobooks check out Libby, it connects to your local library. You just need a library card!
Because they will always have people who support them, regardless of how mean they are, as long as there are people afraid of "pirating" this will never change.
I had a friend at work who said "People who pirate stuff are just as bad as burglers" to me. I had just been Burgled 2 weeks before Christmas.
I replied "Right so I'm as bad as the smack heads that robbed my kids presents, is that what you're saying?"
He did that thing folk do when they look like a fish breathing then tried to backtrack, but that's when he became a "work colleague" again.
They simply want to make money for not creating any new content. They want subscribers not customers. They are currently in a new mode: rent seeking.
Pirate until they get their act together and offer something that has all content available, simply dividing up the proceeds fairly by percentage of viewing time.
Piracy is an availability problem. These assholes built 200 walled-gardens and are wondering why people don’t go to theirs.
Insert Arrested Development banana meme here
They push as far as they can. As long as people are willing to pay they’ll keep vying for our incomes. Cancelled subscriptions is the only language they understand.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/496050/riaa_thinks_limewire_owes_75_trillion_in_damages.html
In 2011 the RIAA sued Limewire for more money than existed on the entire planet.
They know, they don't care.
That's not entirely accurate. Yes, it was more than the GDP of the entire planet at the time, but that's not the value of the entire planet. Unless they meant the amount of physical currency that existed, in which case the amount was considerably less than the 62T that the article cites, since most money is never physical.
It's still patently ridiculous though.
Money, not value. It seems to be mainly anecdotal.
They know some people can't afford it, they just do not care.
Also people regularly spend more than they can afford.
When you think about it the fact that you can quite easily borrow money you clearly will not reimburse which is kind of an infinite money Glitch for capitalism.
We've failed our children by not having any financial education in our schools, let alone good education. Sure in the rich schools you'll get it. But not in the areas that need it the most. It's very easy to slip into crippling debt as a middle class American.
But it's currently too profitable to have poor education. So it's going to stay that way unless we help out our neighbors.
Love him or hate him. People need Dave Ramsey
Eh, Dave Ramsey has some good advice but he also has some really terrible ideas so I strongly recommend going with someone else.
Clark Howard, the Money guy, and Jill Schlesinge are all many times better than Dave Ramsey.
I only say Ramsey because it's for people who can't control their spending and like debt. Clark Howard is great if you're actually smart
The angry chef?
Line must go up