this post was submitted on 07 May 2025
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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I wanna listen to a particular song by an artist who has recently turned pretty nazi. As I generally use Spotify I now refuse to listen to his music in there, esp as it generates earnings. I kinda wanna pirate the music somehow…I’m not gonna as I’m not gonna down a song or two and then store it on my phone like it’s the year 2000. But short story is this me justifying piracy to myself.

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[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 15 hours ago (3 children)

Honestly, after seeing billionaires buy the US gov and then learning that Spotify is owned by a billionaire and artists are terribly compensated, I have been planning to once again fly the pirate flag. I want to pay the artists, but fuck the current options unless there is a different way idk about.

[–] croaker@lemmy.zip 5 points 10 hours ago

Bandcamp is decent. If you wait for Bandcamp Fridays, all of your money goes to the artist.

[–] Chais@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 hours ago

I moved to Qobuz for that reason. Much better payout for the artists.

[–] brax@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 hours ago

Don't forget that they fund the military complex.

Daniel Ek? More like Daniel Ick

[–] Logh@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 hours ago

Spotify only pays for the first few listens I think. Also, the payout is a fraction of pennies.

[–] detun3d@lemm.ee 7 points 17 hours ago

I'd make backups of my purchases and share them with love for preservation and promotion of their authors hard work. "Piracy" was already shown to increase sales, not reduce them. If you really want to do something against an artist you no longer align with, dont consume their products. Don't purchase, don't download and don't share their stuff. Just look around for other artists you do align with, get hooked to their art and support them instead.

piracy is always better than paying a corpo

[–] shadshack@sh.itjust.works 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)

My wife refuses to let me pirate books for her. She wants to support the authors she reads, which is fair. But she decided she wanted to try the Harry Potter books, and asked me to pirate them for her to make sure JK Rowling didn't get a penny out of her.

[–] AFallingAnvil@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago

Now that's a keeper

[–] PiratePanPan@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

You don't have to justify it, really, but it does feel satisfying when you do.

Which song of his out of curiosity? Just use Soulseek. (nicotine+ on desktop or Seeker on Android)

[–] Skellysgirl@lemm.ee 1 points 19 hours ago

Thanks for the response. I’ll take a look

[–] DJDarren@sopuli.xyz 18 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I periodically delete my Metallica collection so I can re-download it for no other reason than fuck Lars.

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 12 hours ago

I play bass. Metallica cut Newsted's bass line out of And Justice for All. I'll hate them for it forever. I love Trujillo now and still have not listened to a single Metallica album since he's played with them.

[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 3 points 19 hours ago

Doing this is not only moral; it's virtuous.

[–] iamanurd@midwest.social 96 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] metaStatic@kbin.earth 38 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] Skellysgirl@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

Hmm I suppose I should amend. I have had this same dilemma with RKelly then MJ. I just can’t condone some artists.

[–] iamanurd@midwest.social 12 points 1 day ago
[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 28 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Yeah I pirate all the games that:

  • Require an internet connection
  • Use Denuvo
  • Require a dedicated launcher
  • Require a connected account

If you're going to make the paid experience significantly worse than the free one because you want to implement anti-consumer BS, go fuck yourself

[–] Skellysgirl@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

Yeh I am not a gamer but have a family of them. As the tech person I’m usually the one dealing with purchases and set up. The evolution of gaming has become a real burden.

Also rootkit anti cheat.

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[–] remon@ani.social 7 points 1 day ago

I never needed any moralistic reason to pirate.

[–] Hestia@hexbear.net 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Pirate away but... i would simply still not listen to any music made by a nazi. Plenty of good songs out there NOT made by a nazi.

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 46 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Ripping off Jeff Bezos is a moral imperative.

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Yeah. I refuse to give cuts to amazon, spotify, netflix etc.

If I pirate something from a not super rich artist and I really enjoy it. I’ll send them an email and propose to transfer them some money to support them. I don’t want spotify or amazon or google taking a cut.

[–] RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Honestly there's so much wonderful art out there not created by Nazis, I don't know that it's worth the energy to pirate Nazi music.

I totally understand the moral pirate argument, I just don't have time to enjoy all of the games, movies, and music from artists I support. To waste what time I have engaging with content from people I find morally repugnant is just not where I'm investing

[–] Skellysgirl@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I totally agree. I just mentioned RKelly and MJ. I have had to stop listening. As time goes by more comes to light and I lose some good tunes.

[–] RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works 1 points 19 hours ago

Use it as an opportunity to find new music and fill those playlists out with a little more variety

[–] DJDarren@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

Same goes for sexual abusers too.

Doesn't matter how good that first Lostprophets album is, I just can't listen to it knowing what Watkins got up to, so I'll listen to music by people who didn't fuck a literal baby.

[–] rosco385@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago

I am the High Priest of Kopimism. Download from where you want, and go in peace my child.

If there is an indie game that I like I will buy it

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

My piracy is probably equal parts sticking it to greedy corpos and me just not wanting to pay when I can get it for free.

[–] Eyedust@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago

Same, but rather than not wanting to pay its more like I can't afford to pay.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago

Nearly everything is priced in dollars and I'm too fucking broke and Brazilian to pay the asking price most of the time.

[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If it can't own my media, I'm certainly not going to pay for it.

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[–] Skellysgirl@lemm.ee 1 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Anyone found a convenient way for music that’s not perpuating a subscription? I’m an iPhone user and do like my tunes in the car. I’m good for movies shows etc. Dropped them all ages ago.

[–] Onihikage@beehaw.org 2 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Download all the music you like, whether buying it on Bandcamp or Amazon or pirating it for literally any reason. If it's too much media to keep locally on your phone then host it on a computer in your house with one of any number of hosting solutions (Jellyfin, Plex, Subsonic, etc.) and VPN your phone's internet connection to your home network so you can stream them from anywhere without having to set up and secure another method of remotely streaming it. If you were on Android I'd recommend Symfonium, but I don't know anything about the iOS app ecosystem.

[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 2 points 19 hours ago
[–] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 day ago

See, that’s the thing. I don’t listen to music by Nazis.

[–] NakariLexfortaine@lemm.ee 18 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Eh, it's kinda down to personal perspective. In mine, absolutely a reasonable way to handle things if you love the art, but don't feel morally comfortable supporting the artist.

I recommend people pirate Enders Game, because fuck Orson Scott Card.

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[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago

Of course. I stand on high moral ground when I chose to pirate.

Economy is broken and anti-consumer. Piracy if the only way I know to balance things of. If I wouldn't be pirating I would just be letting those economic bullies take advantage of me.

And specially with cultural products there's another big reason, as I think human culture is to be shared, not sold. I do actually think is inmoral to prevent other humans to freely access anything that could be considered cultural.

[–] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 day ago

Personally I won't even download it, I even deleted music ive had for years because the artist went maga. And let my daughter use the CD in some arts and crafts, because I can't listen to it anymore.

That said, yeah, I'd prefer to download over buying if I didnt want the company or artist to get the money for it.

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