this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
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Unpopular Opinion

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It is illegal and immoral. It steals the rightful intellectual property of directors and developers who are only trying to make a living. If you want to be a thief so badly, then rob a federal bank.

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[–] MajorHavoc 52 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm a big fan of paying the people who make things for me.

But digital piracy is the only thing keeping archive copies of obscure media around today. Even libraries aren't keeping up. Plenty of media creators have revived their thing that found an audience after decades forgotten - through piracy, and only successfully revived it thanks to archivist pirates, since they had thrown that thing away.

It's not black and white.

Patronage funding, early access, streamlined delivery, and white glove support are the funding models that are working for creatives today.

[–] inspxtr 8 points 1 year ago

speaking of libraries, there is also a need for archiving knowledge and information for the public good, such as books and research articles. Especially the latter are usually created and, many times, already paid for by the researchers themselves (often via tax money), many of whom would prefer to have their research disseminated.

In the global north, many universities can afford such high-priced publisher premium. But in the global south, and many underfunded universities, hospitals, schools in general, such prices are impossible. So in practicality, they turn to piracy for the most part.