this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2023
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I started to watch the video, but after listening to unnecessary rambling twice, I lost interest.
Can you give me a cliff notes of his argument?
Guy pays good money for a 4k tier Netflix subscription because he does not want to pirate. Has a home theatre linux machine because he is worried about the privacy risks of his smart tv and hence doesn't connect his TV to the internet. Finds that he can only get a low bitrate 720p stream on his PC . He is appalled at the fact he isn't getting the quality he paid for and amused at the fact that he would have gotten better quality if he had just pirated and concludes that piracy is just the better experience.
Thanks I appreciate the break down. Have an upvote. I actually saw that, or at least part of it.
But...
There's a difference between it being "a better experience" and it being "justified." Simply because someone has wronged you that doesn't make any action justified. They provide a shit product because they are trying to milk everyone. You don't like it, you simply stop consuming it because you don't like the product. This does not "justify" stealing it from them.
And, again, I'm not shitting on piracy, as I do it myself, and I agree with the reason that it's often the better experience. But I understand what I am doing is not justified.
I don't know man. The companies have no respect for us as consumers. Why should we respect them and their copyright in that case.
In many cases, these services stream shows which they did not have a hand in creating but own the distribution rights to. In that case pirating seems like a weak case of stealing to me. The original crew have already been paid and rewarded for their work and now the streaming companies are just storing and streaming that content which is the same thing piracy websites do. On the other hand pirating newer content and content that is platform exclusive because they(HBO, Disney, etc) are the ones that made it seems a lot more like stealing to me. I am not going to feel guilty for pirating shit like friends or Seinfeld. I am also not going to feel guilty for pirating content which has been geoblocked in such a way that it is not available in my country through any legal means.
What I am trying to say with this is that there are situations where piracy is both convenient and justified
You shouldn't and I don't. You're arguing against a stance I did not take. It seems most everyone here is. It's like people can't imagine a position that doesn't fall into the dichotomy of wrong or justified. It's not, it's like the actions of a chaotic neutral character.
Take a step back and read your argument. You're talking about watching Seinfeld, a pure luxury. It's not like you're starving and trying to feed your family, or protecting someone from grave injustice. You want a luxury but aren't willing to pay the price, so you take it. I have no problem with you doing so because fuck those greedy cunts, but it's not justified.
Yes it's a luxury but in a lot of 3rd countries, these luxuries help people to learn and improve their English and general soft skills.
I can see in that case there being at least mild justification. But this is not what the op is about, it's about a rich American who feels like he is being screwed by Netflix and finds pirating more convenient, so that makes it justified.
literally no harm done so of course its "justified". you are not hurting anybody
Noone getting hurt is part of why I don't give a fuck and do it myself. But what you're describing is something that is neutral, not justified.