Sounds sus.

I won’t dispute that both of these likely abuse the subscription model for their benefit. But they definitely have a social responsibility (and in many cases a legal responsibility) to keep updating the software in these products and the network infrastructure that go with them.

I mean, it would be zero cost if it was a fucking normal device. Someone had the idea that a juice squeezer or a toaster should be online... for... what, exactly? Remove the online (or even better, remove the software), you completely remove the cost that you want impugn on the user with "subscriptions".

That mostly reeks of Classic Americacentrism. When a software is in a US site, it's "good" but subject to DMCA. When it's in a Russian site, suddenly it's All Malware (Always Has Been)?

AYO how is that legal?

Capitalism!

This. With digital feudalism now crossing into the physical realm this way, it'd be nice to see people finally sharpening their guillotines.

Considering Presidents and CEOs exist, I don't think they'd be bad. You might even get out on a golden parachute.

Is there an english equivalent?

Yes: "gratis".

English is literally about mugging other languages in a backalley for words (and boning them for grammar). It's the ISO standard procedure.

Then they have the right to not continue publishing their stuff. That doesn't affect the rights of the persons who already got their copy alongside the associated rights to consume it. Depending on the licensing terms, it might not even affect their granted right to redistribute, if any.

Want to put some economic incentive to pirating? Make it a shared / solidarity pool. Or get in touch with a state / nation that has more active interest on digital sovereignty and preservation so that it can be set up as some sort of UBI.

cracking the games

to put some DRM on them

to sell them

Fam, half the point of pirating is getting harmful middlemans out of the way. If I wanted a game and it was available on the Cracked Store for, say, $10 plus $15 for the DRM unlock, I'd just go to 1337x or somesuch to get the normal pirated version.

I feel so silly that I wouldn't even know how to describe it.

I know! I'll pirate hundreds of books from well-known authors so that I can easily find a useful metaphor.

If Meta can pirate stuff, then the Internet Archive can pirate stuff and I can also pirate stuff. Fair is fair.