However, copyright extends so long now though that it's not uncommon for things to be out of print or no longer distributed, so your only option is "pirating" if you want a copy at all. There's all sorts of weird related scenarios as well.
Maybe it's just what I'm personally familiar with but I no longer feel like the typical pirating case is what it was in the 90s, the "free stuff" case. More often now, it's things that someone can't legitimately get otherwise.
Or because they live in a country where the legal option doesn't even exist. Or because the legal option sucks so bad that you can't use it (hello Amazon prime)
> Or because the legal option sucks so bad that you can't use it (hello Amazon prime)
You can literally buy a Fire tablet for $49; or on eBay $20, and be able to use it and the DRM without touching your Linux stack. Complaining about the lack of legal methods is just a lack of exertion.
The problem is that the legal methods for Internet streaming are a bad experience. I don't pirate both because I have the money and because it's illegal. But it would probably be a better experience than digital rentals if I did.
The majority of people want free shit, regardless of whether it’s a giveaway or a download. That’s just not an argument for or against piracy.
The legal stage is not “can people get free shit in the future” but “can people take it upon themselves to gain/give reasonable and rightful access”.
If we simply “give up the fight” and let companies decide what we can and cannot have, they will put locks on every piece of content. Then locks on every piece of hardware. Then locks on every interaction. Then silos around everything. And after that they will subjectively decide what we get exposed to since they own the distribution channel. Maybe no independent artists. Maybe no content that “has an agenda”. Maybe lists that would make banned book lists look tame.
And that doesn’t even count the ability retroactively remove access to what you grew up on, what you love, and what you hold as important. Regardless of whether you “purchased” it or not (because in this scenario you would have “purchased” everything).
If we hand them absolute power over our experiences we hand over everything.
This is also a documented statistical fact - more than 90% of Yuzu users (or emulation users) do not dump their own keys. That, kind with TOTK famously getting pirated over a million times before release; shows that most arguments about morality and preservation of culture (although they have merit) are mainly given by people interested in justifying their own actions.
Of course they don't, this isn't some big gotcha. Why even bother when a Google search saves you the work? I play some old Pokémon games that came out on the DS and ya know what, I just downloaded the game and shoved it in an emulator rather then figuring out how to get it out of my own cart.
Some nice person already did the work and I don't feel the need to conduct legal ritual with candles and blood rites to get a blessed copy of the same damn bits that are just sitting right there. If I could just get an Nintendo SD card adapter and plug it in to my laptop and dd to get the image it would be a different story.
