I mean, maybe it should be. Maybe the government should be paying artists instead like somebody else suggested somewhere. Idk, it's an interesting topic. But that's in these peoples ideal world that we clearly do not live in. I am in complete agreement that, pirating all forms of art being the morally just thing to do (like the very first commenter suggested), is very incorrect. At least in our timeline it is.
Nelots
To preface this, I do agree it's not morally correct to pirate. At BEST it's morally neutral, and usually it's not even that. I don't know why people think they're entitled to another person's work without paying just because it's "art". They're not.
However...
I completely disagree that your analogy is spot on. If I have zero plans to ever buy a certain car, but then one day decide to just steal it to see if it's fun to drive, that car can no longer be sold to somebody else and the dealership or whatever just lost a lot of money.
On the other hand, if I have no plans to ever buy a game, but decide to pirate it to see if it's actually fun, the developers don't lose money from that. I never would have bought it in the first place, and they can still sell it to others because I didn't actually take it from them.
That's the difference. Now, if I had already planned on buying it but decided, "nah I'll just pirate it instead", then I would agree they're losing out on a potential sale. That's still different from losing a car though, because the dealership isn't only losing a potential sale, they're also losing an item in limited supply that takes physical time and labor to make (as opposed to just fabricating another Steam key).
This is how I handle pirating. I more or less treat pirating as a demo for the game. If I liked the game enough to finish it, 9/10 times I'm going to actually buy it unless I have some personal reason not to, like the dev being a pos I don't wish to support or something.
I've found the Mull browser (which can be found through the DivestOS repository on F-Droid) works great as a privacy-focused firefox fork, similar to LibreWolf. I hear Fennic F-Droid is also a pretty good but less extreme alternative, but I'd imagine you don't care much about that if you use LibreWolf.
Riiight… you were just acting like a scalded cat for shits and giggles, eh?
You know, you keep saying this, but until you directly attacked my character, I was completely unmoved by your comment. I didn't give a shit about you and was just lightly disagreeing with you in my original comment. Maybe you should go back and re-read this full comment chain because I literally have zero fucking clue where you're getting this idea from. I'd like to see you point out, with the full context, where I acted defensive before you actually attacked me personally.
Ooooh… and that would be such a terrible thing, right?
Correct.
so it’s perfectly rational to pretend that this fundamentally white supremacist society couldn’t possibly have affected you, superheroic liberal that you are, in any possible way, right?
Did I say that? Are you actually obtuse or did you just miss the bit where I said this:
When I say something stupid and have it pointed out to me that it’s coming from a perspective of privilege, I realize my fault and try to do better. Believe it or not, nobody is perfect...
Anyway, maybe you should stop calling me racist just because I'm white. That is, quite literally, racist.
You are so incapable of detaching yourself from whiteness that you will literally view any mention of white supremacism’s roots in white, western liberalism as a personal attack…
Again, I do not give a shit about my skin color. I REPEAT, I DO NOT CARE ABOUT BEING WHITE. I DO NOT KNOW WHY YOU THINK I DO. Seriously, for the love of god, pull your dick out of your mouth and take a deep breath. I think the lack of oxygen going to your brain is getting to you. And then maybe you can actually try listening to me. The thing that I took as an attack was you heavily implying that I'm racist. You know, an attack. Go ahead though, keep ignoring me when I tell you this. That dick ain't gonna suck itself.
This you?
What the hell is the even supposed to mean? By saying that a group of people I never even claimed to be a part of aren't necessarily white supremacists, I'm somehow feeling attacked? You know, if somebody were to say all Germans are as bad as Hitler, I would argue with them. That doesn't mean I personally felt attacked and thought I was being compared to Hitler. You do not need to feel personally attacked by something in order to defend it.
You know overt white supremacism?
Irrelevant. Overt, subtle, it doesn't matter. You're calling me, somebody you know nothing about, racist—and for that, you can kindly fuck right off.
You turning reactionary at the mere mention of the term white supremacism is pretty telling. Remember… at no point did I actually accuse you of anything.
I did not turn reactionary at the mere mention of the term. I turned reactionary at you heavily implying that I am one, you fucking ass. And no, the distinction between that and actually calling me one is irrelevant. But go ahead and play your little holier than thou act. I hope you're at least fooling yourself, because you're certainly not fooling anybody else.
You feel attacked because...
See above.
I’m going to take a wild guess here and bet that you always feel the need to “distance” yourself from the likes of Rittenhouse and his ilk, because you don’t want people to associate your whiteness with his.
Uh, no. It's telling that you're so obsessed with the color of my skin, but I actually don't give a fuck about this man or that we share a similar shade of skin. Maybe you should look at yourself in a mirror instead of projecting your racism onto others. If I wish to distance myself from him, it's due to his politics and shitty views, not because of his skin color. Just like I'd like to distance myself from Hitler or Stalin. Or you, for that matter. I'm sure you know what I think better than I do, though, so please, why don't you go ahead and tell me how wrong I am about my own thoughts on the matter? Maybe if you keep it up long enough, you'll finally wonder why it's getting hard to breathe and notice that you've got your own dick shoved 3 inches down your throat!
I didn't feel attacked though, at least not until right now where you're clearly accusing me of being a white supremacist?? Where do you get off doing that to somebody you've never even spoken to before?
When I say something stupid and have it pointed out to me that it's coming from a perspective of privilege, I realize my fault and try to do better. Believe it or not, nobody is perfect, and me not knowing literally every way I might have it better than somebody else doesn't suddenly make me believe white people are the superior race.
You can take a shot at answering that... or I could answer it for you if it makes it easier.
But thanks for the offer, you self righteous asshole. Fuck off.
Being ignorant of some issue a non-white person might have doesn't make you a white supremacist.
Sure. Because you were able to find success, that means everyone should also be able to do it, no matter how different their circumstances are (like the fact that a game genre may be more niche, or that you actually have to pay for games).
You seem like the type that unironically tells people to just pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
Right, "oh well" is all you can say about that. Which is why publishers are useful to many games.
There are plenty of great games you will literally never hear about.
But then if you report something nobody should see, say CP for example, you're suddenly subjecting 20 random people into seeing it.