Can proprietary software be justified?
Yeah.
For example, does Microsoft deserve my money for how much of a dumping they’ve taken onto Windows since Windows 8? No, they don’t.
Because if I did give Microsoft my money, I’m REWARDING them for their half-assery.
Short answer: Yes.
Longer answer: easily yes.
Medium answer: you bet.
Profane answer: heck yes
Street answer: Hellz yiih
French Answer: Mais Oui 🥖🥸
German answer: jawohl!
Yes. Next stupid question.
yes but why is probably the bulk of it…
What’s the justification for not allowing me to make a copy? Those who decry piracy call it theft, but it’s not theft since they aren’t losing anything. Not a physical product they could run out of, nor a potential sale as has been shown time and time again; people who pirate a thing generally wouldn’t have purchased the thing anyway.
This is the only correct answer.
It’s copyright infringement, which I don’t give a crap about.
I am not stealing. It’s there, I take it and it’s still there. Don’t know why these posts keep popping up in piracy communities. Same plague was there on reddit too. Like seriously it’s 2025.
Huh. Based on the community this was posted in, I can assume that the answer the video comes to is “yes” and not watch it. But according to Betteridge’s law of headlines the answer is “no.” I need to argue about this without watching it but I don’t know what stance to argue about.
Ah! I’ll use the Orbit plugin to get an AI to summarize the video for me. Hm. The AI-generated summary says the video describes an anecdote about music copyright violations, talks about some ethical considerations about both music and software piracy, and then:
The speaker concludes by acknowledging the complexity of the issue and the importance of considering the perspectives of all parties involved.
So I guess the answer was “Maybe?” How am I supposed to have a pointless Internet argument about “Maybe?”
Bah. Someone attack me for using AI, at least that’s a debate I can sink my teeth into.
Lazy prick! Should have just put the video on in the background while doing dishes, or do what I did and briefly skim the comments for someone to fight with! AI is dumb, it’s not even named effectively and you’re dumb for using it and a sheeple for calling it AI in the first place!
Fight me! ❤️Joke’s on you, I have a dishwasher machine! Robots do my dishes for me too! It is you who is the dumb one, having to labor manually as you do!
Ah, there we go. Thanks.
I bought a quite expensive piece of animation software (that cost over $1000) to use professionally. The specific term it was sold to me under was a “perpetual license.” I took this to mean “never ending”, which is the dictionary definition of the word “perpetual.” You can probably guess where this is going.
A few years later, in the middle of a professional project, it stopped working. I contacted support, and was told that they changed the way they were doing licenses so I’d have to buy a new one (at almost double the price) or eat shit. I’m paraphrasing, but that was the gist of it.
So yeah, if you’re thinking of buying a Toon Boom Harmony perpetual license, maybe save yourself a lot of money and hassle and just pirate it instead. Or tell them to get fucked and use their direct competitor. I have done both.
if they put in DRM that makes the plugins 10x as big (looking at you, Acustica. I don’t even use their plugins because of that), or they make the legit version have some bullshit always-online “all-in-one” software (i.e Native Access) which in turn makes the software a bit of a faff to get working in Linux (to install legit libraries for legit kontakt, native access stores those libraries as .iso files and does some virtual drive fuckery a la DAMEONTools), then yes, if the pirated version is quicker to set up and run (and install libraries for), it is justified imo.
Also i hate theaters and streaming services. I’d rather watch whatever movie I think is cool in the comfort of my PC rather than having to drive to the theater (if it’s even on there in the first place), or paying for 9000 streaming services now and only watch like a couple of things. The wait for a good webrip (even more so for a BluRay) is worth it.
Honestly, I don’t have any issue using a pirated software for my own personal use.
I put the line where you use the software to make money.
Even then, I have no problem with self-employed people using it to make money. But if a corporation you work for does it: snitch and get that BSA payday.
why is anyone still trying to justify piracy? that’s step 2 of a conversation that even non-criminals are on step 9 in
Believe it or not, I’ve met people like this. I know a guy who was worried about showing a movie to our Meetup group.
Not because he was afraid of getting caught. He thought it might be unethical.
it’s crazy how worried normal everyday people are worried about accidentally hurting the feelings of corporations. especially post-covid.
Better question: Who decides what software “piracy” even is?
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I want the stuff, the stuff is there. I take it. The stuff is still there, nothing was lost, nothing was stolen.
You’re not stealing stuff, you’re stealing revenue. The missing revenue is what they care about. But they have plenty of that already, so they can get bent
Stealing revenue it’s hypothetical, because it supposes that you were going to pay for the product if it wasn’t available pirated. And that is far from being certain.
Can purchasing anything within the system of monstrous exploitation called global capitalism be justified?
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No, but saying to participate and that purchasing software is inherently moral is also fallacious.
Developers, musicians, creatives, actors etc all need to be paid to live in society. However, the current system rewards the lucky few and large corporations as well as the non creative side of media and software creation.
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No, but that’s the case with or without piracy. Artists and devs shouldn’t rely on goodwill. That’s just expanding the tips system which is already awful.
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No, I’m not saying artist money is any more immoral than any other purchase. I’m also saying artists should not depend on donations only. I also did not say I exclusively pirate. Don’t put words in my mouth.
I’m saying the current system is broken. Replacing it with tips is not the solution. Transport and creative industries will see huge lay offs in the coming years. We need to decide as a society what we value. Is it creating art and pleasure or lines going up on company spreadsheets. Free spread of ideas and art is an ideology. The only reason not to allow it is to profit. Those profits don’t go to most artists.
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