Pirated and OS software are different things, obviously. But would you prefer one over the other? I’m thinking of switching to both OS software AND pirated software. Just want opinions and tips from this community.
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Corporations can’t suffer. It doesn’t matter whether you “steal” from them or not.
It’s not stealing if buying isn’t owning.
I mean ethically it’s kind of in the air. Personally I only recomend pirating when there isn’t a viable FOSS alternative, and without very specific reasons IMO there’s some nice linux distro’s out there. Personally I feel so bogged down when forced to use windows for work or to help others etc… and these days you can run pretty much anything beyond certain online games that refuse to allow linux through their anti-cheat.
Now when it does come to software in general, I guess it depends on the view. IMO there’s 3 categories that make a big difference there.
Software is bad/not worth the price: Well if you believe that why use it at all.
Software is good, worth the money but you are broke: Honestly on the whole I agree with pirating in these situations… however I would actually recomend buying it when your finances allow. You should want to support products that you use and help you.
software is good, but exploitative in methods: IE say adobe with their forced subscription models etc… To me that one makes the most sense and probably agree with you.
software is good, but their anti-piracy is stupid: IE a lot of good software programs, throw in anti-piracy measures that wreck the game. IE things that require you to always be connected to a server, that may be unreliable, to access resources that are on your computer. Yeah fuck those guys, definately pirate it.
If you actually use Linux then I would appreciate an answer to the following question: Can I transfer a (pirated) PC game on my phone to Linux via either localsend or FTP Server? And how difficult is it to do?
It’s not so easy to answer if piracy is ethical, depends of the context. It’s not the same soft from a shady company and from a small dev team or startup. Anyway, due to the overhelming amount of free alternatives, piracy in most of the cases isn’t necessary. I’m using an PC since almost 30 years now and never had the need to piracy an soft or pay for it. There are tons of free and OpenSource soft and services out ther, often better as the commercial ones, giveaway campaigns in games (Steam, Itch.io, DigiPen and others are full of good free games) and soft, free music (Bandcamp, Pixelfed, FMA,), etc. only needs to search a little.
My personal preference is to use FOSS whenever it’s practical. For home use, I’ve switched to FOSS for the vast majority of my computing needs. I run Linux on both my server and desktop. Most of the software on my server is FOSS, with the one exception being a container using the Splunk free license. My desktop is running Linux, and I use LibreOffice for documents and the like. I do run Visual Studio Code, which is technically Open Source, though I would not put it past Microsoft to do a rug-pull on that eventually. And I have an extensive library of games with Steam, basically nothing of which is Open Source.
I have reached a point, financially, that piracy is not morally defensible. And I’m not willing to get into the mire of if, or where such a line would be. I believe that creators should be rewarded for their work. Though, I also agree that the limits on copyright are way out of whack with the changes Disney has purchased through the years. So, piracy as a moral question is a murky subject, with no clear answers to me. But, the end result is that I buy games, movies or TV shows. For other software, I usually look to FOSS projects (e.g. Gimp vs Photoshop, FreeCAD/OpenSCAD vs Autodesk), free licenses (e.g. Splunk) or just do without. For TV Shows/Movies, if it’s not on one of the streaming services I subscribe to, I may buy it via a digital service; or, I do without.
Have you tried the fork VSCodium? It strips out some of the telemetry and makes it more FOSS.
Yo ho ho bitches.
I once was wearing my music pirate tee, with a skull wearing head phones, while walking in public in the city (Chicago). I was in a light crowd crossing the street and this traffic cop gave me the dirtiest goddamn look I’ve ever seen lol
Both FOSS and piracy are about freedom. The first is given, the second is taken.
History will thank pirates for keeping our cultural history preserved and safe from for profit leeches that would burn every single book in existence if it made them a dollar.
I’m honestly… In the middle.
My home network is covered by a VPN, which means I can’t use streaming services without punching a hole for my home IP and sacrificing a little privacy - which I’m not willing to do. I’ve gone through my part and contacted providers to lemme through, without success. Even Amazon who CLEARLY knows my name and mailing address still won’t let me watch things even if I own Prime…
So yes, I pirate movies and tv shows. I’ve tried to cooperate, but if my money isn’t enough, then so be it.
Video games I no longer pirate, I’m content with Steam. I also backup all my installs on an external hard drive in the unlikely event Steam goes under or a company demands pulling a game from my profile.
This is no longer true for Nintendo. Their latest attitudes have resulted in me deleting my account and becoming a loyal pirate for Nintendo games. They literally turned me into what they’re fighting, ironic right?
I also no longer pirate general software because 98% of the software I use are FOSS, self created, or just free+offline in general. The other 2% is software I purchased because it was a lifetime permanent license and for software I felt deserved the money for support.
So yeah big tech is my main enemy. If I need something and they won’t work with me without ransoming my privacy and rights, then yeah so be it.
I have been dealing a lot in piracy. I don’t really do that anymore. I’ve switched to many free or fair software creators. I don’t mind paying for the software or games I use. I do mind paying for something, and then not owning it, and being tracked by it and just paying a lot, because the software producer has a kind of monopoly.
I support FOSS and others, with small donations. Like Mozilla, LibreOffice, Inkscape, Krita, Linux Mint and a lot of others.
I think you should pirate away on unethical companies. Do it for many of the reasons other mention in this thread, and do it because they are greedy and don’t respect you!
If a provided service is good and made accessible reasonably, I’ll use it and happily pay. As soon as it is intentionally obtuse or consumer hostile, say no more; I take to the seas.
But in all cases, I prefer FOSS first. It is generally better, more secure, has more vibrant communities, and represents a dying breed of freedom that we all need.
This is the way. The same goes for media too. Look at the state of streaming services, DRM, and digital storefronts, it’s a shitshow
What’s hilarious is, Netflix damn near killed piracy completely. Until every single network decided to do it themselves.
They forgot the most important part of piracy. Access.
I am NOT paying for your entire streaming service if I want to watch a movie.
Not to mention, a LOT of older movies should be in the public domain by now, and therefore free to watch. But nope, in fact, many older movies are simply gone. Never to be seen again.
Piracy is the great economic equalizer in the age of digital exploitation.
With how shit my countries consumer protection laws are, 🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
I have a few personal rules about it, eg. I’ll try not to pirate smaller, independent things where it might conceivably screw over the creator, but other than that it’s all fair game IMO.
As a side note, it’s been interesting to grow up hearing non-stop from the corporate world that piracy is evil and is killing art or whatever, to watching them do a full 180 in the last couple of years now that they need to pirate the entire internet to train AI.
Rules for thee but not for me
Ethically? If you would’ve bought it if you couldn’t pirate it, you should probably buy it.
It’s a good way to get your data stolen/malware. Don’t get me wrong from 10-18 I used pirated software exclusively. But it’s not secure or a good idea at all if you’re going to use, say, banking or crypto stuff. You can get a winblows key from a reseller for like $15-20USD. I personally wouldn’t mess around with any of it anymore. I got a bunch of cool art programs in a bundle for I think $25 ($400 usd value) that I use now, and before that I used Krita.
