Fuck Empress, however she's right on this specific matter.

No point in protesting, we already have a better alternative.

I don't think piracy needs to be justified because different people have different reasons.

Sure you could argue that you're not actually stealing but creating/downloading a copy of something it already exist. I always found that anti piracy commercial "you wouldn't steal a car" ridiculous as that's not how piracy works.

For example, I do it because I don't agree with how segmented the video streaming industry has become in recent years with this many different services that force you to buy a bunch of subscriptions while continuosly pulling content. Unlike the music streaming industry where all the most popular content (the majority of it) can be found on pretty much every serivce. You could have Spotify or Apple Music, not much difference (if any at all) in content or quality.

When I was a teenager I did it because I couldn't afford to buy any sort of media content and options were limited. Pretty much everyone that owned an MP3 player was pirating music.

If music production is your main objective, I would suggest Windows. I do some home recordings as well and have quite a baggage of pluggings and tools that are either unavailable, not compatible or not up to date on Linux (I'm on an Arch based distro). I have Windows and Linux on two separate SSDs for this exact reason. I managed to set up my Linux system in a way where I can work on some projects and got most programs to work one way or another but I always encounter hardware issues that have to do with drivers, especially with some of my older equipment. If you have the the option you can install another drive on youtrlaptop and run both Windows and Linux.

Now, there are folks out there that do music on Linux but there is a lot of work to do to keep things running, especially if you use lots different softwares and pluggins.

Yeah Lemmy seems the way forward. It just sucks for all the subs that won't be making it here anytime soon. Niche subs I'm following for example, I'll still have to rely on Reddit.

Piracy is the only viable option. The problem isn't the concept of a streaming subscription service, the problem is how many of them there are. A couple would be fine I guess but if we consider the fact that all the content is divided in more than 10 major services, it's no longer a viable option.

There's people on both sides of the scale here.

I used to pirate stuff because I couldn't afford it or because I prioritized spending my money elsewhere since I could get stuff for free. Then as I got a job, I could afford to pay for lots of things and legal options became more convenient than piracy, so I just stopped pirating.

Now I'm back on the ship because pirating has become more convenient than subscribing to a bunch of different fragnented and anti-consumer services just to access a handful of content.

Some people just want shit for free (which is ok, been there), some others value service and convenience first and foremost.

Deliberately using an alternative is a form of protesting.

And it can be, sure, but it's not always the case.

I'm not just using Lemmy until or if Reddit backtracks, I'm using Lemmy because I believe it's the superior platform in many ways and has more to offer. I didn't make an account here in sign of protest, I made one because Lemmy was suggested to me and I'm liking it better than where I came from.

I'm also aware that many users on this platform would go back to Reddit if they backtracked on the API keys.

Not to mention the fact that oftentimes pirated content is just better. DRM free games run better and some work people have put into remastering media in general is outstanding.

I found a collection of the DBZ anime which is color corrected, proper aspect ratio, higher resolution, improved audio (from a different home release with better audio) made by fans for no profit. Even if you wanted to you couldn't purchase that but piracy made it possible.

Unofficial remasters of some old, poorly mastered songs have made a difference for me and I wouldn't be able to enjoy them without resorting to piracy.

That's not what I'm saying. Take cable tv subscriptions for example. Multiple companies offer different subscription tiers at different prices but you can get the highest tier subscription which includes all the channels.

Now imagine having to subscribe individually to each Channel, this is essentially what these streaming services are doing.

At least with cable TV you can get the highest tear subscription with all the channels. With streaming services you have to subscribe to a decent bunch just to have a broad variety of content, resulting in a much higher price than any cable TV subscription.

It's a disaster.

Copyright infringement laws vary but even though simply downloading copyrighted material is against policies, it's hard to enforce and most copyright holders don't always find grounds for a lawsuit or it's straight up not worth pursuing. You downloading a movie off a website is the same as a friend of yours sharing the same movie with you on a USB stick.

Actions against unauthorized distribution of copyrighted materials (especially if it's for profit) on the other hand are much more easily enforceable.

I've been using flixhq.to which is add-free and I've been pretty happy with it!

If piracy were legal (just the download for personal use, not redistribution), let's pretend for a second. I bet the majority of people wouldn't even be here asking these questions.

"If it's legal then why not". That's how many people think. However the morality aspects still stand and shouldn't be skwed by the legal aspect. When you made the example of pirating indie games, if piracy is legal, people would legally download those games from third party sources, even the people who wouldn't do it if piracy were illegal (like it is in reality).

At that point it'll become some sort of "if I can afford it I will support the studio and buy the game, if I can't I will get it for free because people won't think I'm stealing regardless". Kind of like a donate if you can sort of system some software developers have in place.

In reality nothing prevents the same people from thinking that way right now. It's just the stigma behind pirating even those indie games which is still skewed and dependant by the legal aspect of the situation.

The truth about digital products is that if someone doesn't want to pay for something they won't pay regardless and it doesn't rob anyone else from being able to purchase and downloade the same exact content the legit way. The mistake is seeing pirates as otherwise potential paying customers if piracy wasn't an option.

And there's no other way to play those games. They're pretty much gone forever alongside the money spent to purchase them.

Anything Arch, because it's hard, it's a pain in the ass and as an intermediate user I need Arch to break on me so I can fix it and learn.

I will definitely consider sub.rehab since my communities gain a bit more traction! Thanks a lot

I opened a couple sure but the problem is getting the traffic on here. I can't just make a post on the subreddit because it gets removed immediately by the mods.

You're just mad with that fact that other people might have different reasons to pirate content other than just being a cheapskate lol

Leaks suggests that the iPhone 15 will have a USB-C charging port. Also I can't imagine Apple going full wireless thus incapacitating the user's ability to effectively use the phone while charging.

I used to be on Majaro for awhile, years ago but I wouldn't recommend it now. It doesn't have any of the advantage of an Arch based distro. Their own repo has issue. I would recommend Endeavour OS

If pirating wasn't illegal a lot of industries would die. So let's keep it illegal and unethical, so people actually purchase the products that keep these industries alive and thriving.

You fail to realize that piracy is what is actually contributing the most behind the scenes. Artists gain more from exposure than to direct purchases of their products. If piracy was illegal many musicians wouldn't be so famous/well known because not so many people can/are willing to make a purchase in order to discover something. Actually going to concerts and buying merch contributes to musicians much more than buying their songs for $2 on the Apple Store or whatever. Music labels and distributors keep the majority of the revenue anyway.

Also what you actually call "stealing" is actually just sharing digital data. Nobody is taking away anything from anybody. It's not a physical good with limited availability. The people who pirate digital products wouldn't be buying it regardless (for whatever reason that might be, it doesn't matter), essentially it doesn't make any difference to the creators. The difference between purchasing a game for example and the difference between pirating is the same as the difference between purchasing the game and NOT purchasing the game. Let's not even get into DRMs where they make the experience worse for paying customers by tanking game performance. Or forcing to always be online to play single player games. The list can go on and on.

Pirating in 2023 is the only ethical way of consuming media. I'm done paying greedy corporations for a ridiculously fragmented entertainment industry where an individual has to subscribe to different services just to watch different seasons of the same show because they somehow decided to remove content I wasn't done watching. Or renting a movie on Prime Video just to find out I need to purchase a specific device to watch it in HD when my machine is more than capable of playing 4k.

The only way I'd pay for digital content again is if they provide some sort of convenience over piracy. I happily pay for my Spotify subscription because it is actually a good service, at a good price and most importantly it's convenient! I can listen to whatever song I want from one single subscription using only one app on my phone.

I used to pay for YouTube premium, I downloaded a bunch of videos to watch offline while on a trip where I knew I didn't have internet access only to find out that in order to watch the videos I downloaded I needed to be online in the past 3 days. So I couldn't even watch them because of some nonsensical, anti-consumer policies. So I downloaded a third party app that gives me premium features (and more) that allows me to actually watch videos offline.

I came here expecting to get tips on piracy and instead I saw a bunch of people claiming they were doing God's work. Insane.

You came here looking for tips but you're getting a reality check instead. I think it's awesome.

That explains it thanks. I thought we were mutually defederated (that's what I heard anyway). So essentially, if I were to comment under one of their posts, their users won't see my comment?

No, I'm so sorry, your low quality response doesn't disprove any of my points. You didn't even try because you know you can't.

In your case choosing to pirate = choosing not to buy. If you chose not to buy without pirating it would've been the same thing. You were never forced to buy anything, don't convince yourself otherwise.

Enabling G-Sync and increasing digital vibrance on my second monitor. Everytime I need to increase the vibrance on my second monitor I have to first boot into xfce, open nvidia settings until the profile loads then log out and then log into hyprland. It's very annoying.

That's it. I don't know why it was commented in the first place. Thanks for pointing it out! Now it works

I understand and using Windows for certain things is perfectly valid. Perhaps things will change in a few years and we'll be able to run all the plugins with a system similar to WINE, or something like that.

Windows 10 on my main machine and Lubuntu on my home server

Not much difference between sway and Hyprland

Much better than Reddit. I no longer get my comments automatically removed by some poorly implemented algorithm anymore. Lemmy is more flexible and diverse.

That's rough! I only received an email from my provider Telus telling me to stop torrenting, I didn't and I never received another email since. I don't use any VPN

I just did the same thing. I deleted all my posts and comments on my 14k karma account. I'll be keeping the account though, just for the memories.

It does actually. I'm creating a community for one of the subreddits I was a part of, hopefully more people will join and fully migrate from Reddit.

ViMusic looks a well put together app, I'm gonna check it out!

I'm liking Jerboa more than I initially did. It need improvements of course but things will eventually come along. What all third party apps desperately need is adding functions for moderators. Everytime I have to log in to the browser version of my instance just to pin or delete spam comments. Not very convenient.

It kinda is, just went from EOS to Arch with Hyprland today. It's hard to move to something that feels less up to date.

i3 for while but I mainly used xfce. Hyprland overall feels "new", unlike X11, Wayland just "flows" better in a way. i3 felt more clunky but overall more stable, if that ever makes sense.

When Lemmy gives you a Lemon, you make lemonade 🍋

I'm not judging you for that, I've downloaded stuff because I couldn't afford also.

There are different type of pirates all doing the same thing for different reasons, which are all very valid.

The one thing to keep in mind is that piracy is by no means "stealing", not even close. When you pirate stuff you're not depriving the creator or other buying customers of their products because you're essentially just sharing/downloading a digital, replicable copy.

If anything it's copyright infringement, we should start calling it for what it actually is.

Thanks a lot, I'll check them out!