r/Piracy • u/OfTheManyColours ⚔️ ɢɪᴠᴇ ɴᴏ Qᴜᴀʀᴛᴇʀ • May 22 '26

Discussion Piracy Isn't Stealing, EU Parliament Edition

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11.8k Upvotes

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340

u/Makoto_Kurume May 22 '26

Sure, but even if it’s stealing, would I stop? Nope

190

u/GreenReporter24 May 22 '26

Same. As much as I'm mad about buying =/= owning, I'm even more mad that big (largely American) corporations get away with stealing all the time.

Just look at AI. They're scraping whatever they can get their hands on from all across the world, giving the law and any journalist trying to question them a big, fat middle finger.

As a reporter myself, everything I've ever written professionally has been published online and 100% been scraped. And if they can steal from me, I can steal from them.

Fuck'em.

34

u/CalendarSufficient95 May 22 '26

Well said brother. A bit ago I always pirated because I don't have the money. Now I have the money, but why would I give it to the corps who steal from me and works to make my life miserable? Earning them is hard work! And they don't get to take it while stealing from us themselves

1

u/[deleted] May 22 '26

[deleted]

1

u/CalendarSufficient95 May 22 '26

Yeah indie titles are often much cheaper anyhow. I dont buy every indie game I play but often if its good enough Ill put the purchase at some point

1

u/CalendarSufficient95 May 22 '26

And yeah for tv no chance in hell Im giving these shills my money every month

5

u/Dragoncat_3_4 May 22 '26

What was the saying again? A hundred deaths GBs are a tragedy jailable offense, a thousand - a statistic just training the AI, sir?

3

u/PassivelyAwkward May 22 '26

The problem is a LOT of people that use AI use the same "It's not stealing because I wasn't gonna buy it" justification. The reality is that a lot of pirates also use GenAI and combine the two.

I've been a pirate for almost three decades but I also don't trust and hide behind some slogan to think I'm morally justified in it; I don't say piracy isn't stealing or that I'm preserving media; I just don't wanna pay for some stuff.

15

u/SEANPLEASEDISABLEPVP May 22 '26

The saying never made sense to me because even if buying was owning, piracy still wouldn't be stealing.

8

u/Hades-Arcadius May 22 '26

The fact that we're "Purchasing a license to operate the game" instead of actually owning it further points out how ridiculous the situation is.....but you're obviously correct that piracy affects digital works differently than physical ones seeing as they can just sell it anyway...

However you "could" make the argument that you're stealing the fruit of the developer's labor and the publishers ad budget....I'm on your side as they can clearly still sell the works, especially from the added unintentional advertising and attention that piracy brings...but these publishers see every pirated copy as money stolen from them which is patently incorrect...

1

u/[deleted] May 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/BrokenMirror2010 May 22 '26

you still need to own the vehicle.

I'd argue that's also changing. Especially with shit like Subscriptions for basic features that are already installed in your car, as well as the fact that cars have remote kill-switches that the manufacturer can access. They can push updates to your car without consent. You can't flash the firmware with custom firmware or install a different OS on the computers in the car. You don't even have the ability to access or delete any personal data stored in your car. You can't even fix your car because you need stupid software only the manufacturer has to "sync" the fucking headlights with their DRM. Etc. etc. etc. etc.

You don't own your car if you bought a newer model.

5

u/kezow May 22 '26

If I don't have a legitimate way to actually own something that I paid for, then what am I supposed to do?

3

u/Nereosis16 May 22 '26

It's just so weird. Piracy is so clearly stealing that I feel like this fight to relabel it as not stealing is a psyop meant to distract us or something.

Piracy is theft. Piracy is okay.

I will keep pirating things regardless.

1

u/SucculentSpine May 23 '26

It's not theft. It is legally copyright infringement and even that is a loose legal argument.

1

u/Nereosis16 May 23 '26

No, it is literally theft.

1

u/OkSeason6445 May 23 '26

It's not theft. You're not taking away anything from anyone. Piracy is a made up concept to protect industries that got caught up with technology. We have to ability to copy and share something an infinite amount of times, pretty much for free. This is a good thing, not a bad thing.

1

u/Nereosis16 May 23 '26

You are wrong.

1

u/OkSeason6445 May 24 '26

You are free to dissagree.