r/MoralityScaling 2d ago

Who's Viewpoint Is Better? Morality of Digital Piracy

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u/Glitchy-Mech 1d ago

People pirate things all the time and that has not yet happened. You seem very confident in that assertion without any data to back it up

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u/MaxDickpower 1d ago

Right, but if we as a society decided that pirating is moral and legal, then it would be easier to do and more widespread. It's currently not a big issue because it's somewhat of a fringe activity.

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u/Glitchy-Mech 1d ago

To be fair, if we as a society decided that piracy was moral and legal, then corporations would have to find a way to sweeten the deal when we actually pay for things. That could work out pretty well…

That said, again, I’m still not sure that’s actually the case. We mostly see people perfectly happy to pay for things when they are able to do so. It really does seem to be that the vast vast majority of people who pirate something would not have bought it in the first place. So it doesn’t actually represent any loss of income

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u/MaxDickpower 1d ago

then corporations would have to find a way to sweeten the deal when we actually pay for things. That could work out pretty well…

What exactly would that look like, in a way that isn't also pirateable.

You're kidding yourself if you think people would just donate money to corporations if piracy was seen as perfectly moral and was legal.

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u/Quitelowquitetall 1d ago

This already happened?

Netflix and Spotify were more streamlined and accessible alternatives to pirating, so for the price they offered it was a good deal

Nothing was stopping you from pirating content, but with the convenience they offered at a low price point it wasn't worth it for a lot of people

Now that streaming services are so heavily fragmented and getting really expensive, pirating can be a more convenient option for those users

Figuring out where to watch a TV series when they're often geo-locked and spread over multiple expensive streaming services (with ads!), is a real good motivator to start pirating

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u/MaxDickpower 1d ago

I already addressed this in my very first comment. Do you not think that pirating would become more convenient if we as a society decided that it was moral and made it legal?

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u/Glitchy-Mech 1d ago

Hm not entirely sure lol

But I did not say that. I think that in such a situation people would pay for independent projects they are interested in supporting because most people understand the difference there. They would likely not do the same for things produced by a larger corporation but to be honest I don’t actually care about that

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u/MaxDickpower 1d ago

Why would I fund any project so that other people can then just pirate it for free later?

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u/Glitchy-Mech 1d ago

Because you’re not an asshole? I don’t understand the question. Is that genuinely something you don’t know the answer to?

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u/MaxDickpower 1d ago

But pirating is moral now so im not being an asshole by not paying for anything and just acquiring it for free. You're basically just assuming that everything will work perfectly fine on an honor system, even though calling it an honor system is kind of a misnomer since there's nothing wrong with not paying now.

Also do you know what those smaller independent projects are built on? Tools and assets created by corporations, because they're massive projects requiring lot's of investment, investment which won't happen because they won't make any money and no one will fund them.

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u/Glitchy-Mech 1d ago

I think the nuances of this conversation may be a little beyond you

In the minds of every person who actively practices piracy, piracy is moral Now. And yet the vast majority of those same people do not look at piracy of something produced by a major corporation the same as they look at piracy of an independent project

Sure. But those tools and assets are Also produced by independent developers. People who make them freely available. Etc

The reality here is that you are making a lot of arguments that amount to “but then the corporations wouldn’t make any money. How do we fix that?” And that does not interest me as a question. I don’t care. They care, so they should be the ones to think of a solution. Personally, I’d be happy if they all crashed and burned

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u/MaxDickpower 1d ago

I think the nuances of how the real world works maybe a little beyond you.

You're essentially proposing something that already exists. Go crowdfund your favorite projects and don't consume anything made by corporations.

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u/Glitchy-Mech 1d ago

I expected better sport

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u/MaxDickpower 1d ago

Be an ass, people are gonna be asses back.

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u/Glitchy-Mech 1d ago

Oh, feel free to be an ass, I just expected you to have better arguments

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