this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2025
328 points (98.5% liked)
Technology
74692 readers
2729 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Hmm, if only there was something in history (cough Prohibition cough drug bans cough piracy cough) that could've predicted this. It's almost like people will do the easier thing when the legal thing is harder to do.
Especially when the legal thing is stupid and intrusive.
You don’t have to go back that far, just look at digital music. People were trading files on Napster, and the music industry was having a fit. Steve Jobs opened the iTunes Music Store and started selling all files for .99, people started gobbling them up, and piracy went down. Then along came Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, etc., and most people are happy to pay. Why, because it’s so much easier and convenient than trying to pirate it and get it on your phone/player.
Don’t get me wrong, people still pirate, but the percentage is low compared to what it was before these easy legal options. People will always take the easiest route, legal or illegal.
Netflix appeared, piracy dropped. And when the movie streaming market fragmented, piracy shot up. Like they say, it's a service problem.
YES! Exactly my point. Thank you!