Ask Lemmy

Many years ago, the supreme court ruled that private citizens were allowed to use a recorder to tape TV for personal use. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Corp._of_America_v._Universal_City_Studios,_Inc.

This is not that different ethically. You're basically just watching something you already had access to at a later time.

The person distributing the content is different though. They're diminishing the potential value of the copyright. Even if the owner is not monitizing on it right now, it occasionally happens that an otherwise dead series gets a revival which could give the original content a renewed value. That would be destroyed by someone distributing it for free.

I guess we could argue about the ethics of that happening, and whether the copyright actually looses or gains any value from having old content freely distributed, but that's a whole different topic.

for long dead series, that the franchise is dead, yes its justifiable since nothing new is being produced. aka, SG series.

piracy is always justifiable.

In theory, copyright law exists to create an incentive for people to engage in creative works. Copyright allows the creator to monopolize the distribution of their own work, and that monopoly makes the enormous amount of effort put into the work financially viable, in theory. If the creator has published the work, and is no longer distributing it, there is no monopoly for their copyright to protect. However they are using their copyright, it is not in the intended fashion and so it is ethically justifyable to bypass it.

That being said, in the modern context; the issue creatives face with monetization is not distribution, but discovery. There is so much content that being seen is the primary gatekeeper to financial success, so much so, that most creatives will legally give up their monopoly on distributing their work in exchange for promotion (publishing). In such an environment, piracy is effectively aiding the creator by spreading their reach, even if they are not directly paid. Their cultural relevance is much more important than that one sale. Despite this, the ownership of the properties ip is what holds value, and so the owners must keep up at least a token amount of resistance to piracy, to maintain their legal legitimacy.

You can see this reflected in the modern environment; easy, widespread piracy that is only occasionally resisted in the cheapest and most non-committal manner possible. Pirate whatever you want, and understand that you will occasionally be told to stop. However; that that request always comes with a wink.

Ethics is cool and all but have you tried coming to your own conclusion?

Do you feel okay with doing whatever measures you must to secure it? Is taking something that someone else has 'legal' control over wrong to you? Think about it this way, are you justified at coming up to my windows and taking pictures of my art work in my house? I'm not selling it, so clearly it's fine since you're not depriving me off monetary value and, if I wanted to have some control over it, I should be selling prints of it at least, right?

Or, like, it's just a show. Keeping it and sharing it with others keeps it alive, instead of digitally rotting away. Don't spend that much time thinking about any of it.

Why don't you just say the show, though?

Piracy is quite frequently justifiable, even on common media.

In our modern landscape, the vast majority of creators don't see a dime when you view their material, so I have no reason to feel obligated to line the coffers of some conglomerate that's effectively stealing the artist's money.

I'll pay for niche streaming services (paying for dropout directly helps the cast and crew) and buy merch from artist sites or shows, but I'm not going to feel guilty that downloading an album off a torrent takes away the fractions of a cent that my streams would give when I can pay them directly for a shirt and physical copy of the album if I ever get to see them live.

It's probably illegal but it's completely moral in my opinion. Like, wtf are you supposed to do if not pirate? They pulled the show. You cannot obtain it legally even if you wanted to

If no one loses any income from you pirating something then I'd say it's impossible to be immoral. I'd imagine that anyone actually involved in original production would just be happy that there's still someone out there interested in their work.

If the only person who loses income is a corporation then it's still morally acceptable because corporations themselves are inherently amoral.

Pirate everything but balance the books by directing money to the original creators with things like merch or going to live shows or conventions etc

Piracy is justifiable in a vastly greater number of scenarios than just pulled media.

If it cannot be purchased for reasonable price on a good medium and owned forever, then piracy is justified.

If they don't want to make money on it anymore, that's their call. They don't get to forbid us from accessing our own culture, though. If they don't want to provide any way to access the content at all, the internet at large will provide.

To keep it short: Yes, it is.

It's always justifiable to pirate shows. Specially in a world where they make it so hard to own the media you are buying.

Justifiable? Maybe. Maybe not. I'm not an armchair ethics professor like most of the nerds in this discussion.

I cut out all all the extra dance steps and forgo justification entirely. If I want it, I'll attempt to take it one way or another.

If no one can own anything, then piracy doesn't exist.

Download that show. It's a form of protest, as far as I'm concerned.

Make sure to bind your torrent client to your vpn. VPNs have a killswitch but the binding offers a bit for insurance.

What makes torrenting justified in my view:

1. Enshittification of streaming services with ad breaks.
2. Shows typically have a 2 year gap before we can watch the next 8-10 episodes.
3. Not all shows are available in all countries.
4. The customer has to pay for multiple services to binge an entire show.
5. Physical media is not always available.

Media piracy is always justifiable.

If buying isn’t owning then piracy isn’t stealing.

Piracy is always justifiable. Get it. Get the whole dang season.

Go for it. AI basically made piracy legal, or these companies would be facing massive lawsuits, right?

Piracy is always justifiable.

Legally, no. The law does not carve out any kind of exceptions here.

Ethically, it's not a lost sale if you never could've bought it in the first place. And I don't think it's fair to audiences to say they just don't get to enjoy the media at all if it's not officially available. If official means no longer exist, then piracy is preservation.

Morally, creators still do deserve compensation for their work, one way or another. So if you can't buy the work directly I think it's good to try and find other ways to support the creators if possible - such as buying merchandise or other projects they're involved with.

Why would it not be justifiable? Seriously, start by asking about the harm, and to who, and then you will answer your own question easily enough.

In the start of 2000 the American diffusion rights for Cowboy Bebop was held by Disney. It cost in my region nearly 50$ for 2 episodes on DVD (there’s 26 episodes).

The reason was that « animation » was their turf and they were no good reason for them to let so oriental men be better than Disney at it. So they bought most of the diffusion rights and didn’t distribute the product.

Most of the time … piracy is ethical

Its most likely illegal, but depends on where you live (some country might have more flexible copyright laws that have that situation as an exception).

But I would consider that ethical and moral. When HBO deleted a bunch of their cartoons for the tax ride off, one of the creators of the cartoons tweeted that they themselves had to pirate their own show just so their kid could still watch it.

Legally, no. There are some grey areas to be poked around in like orphaned works whose ownership is ambiguous or contested, but it doesn't sound like your problem falls into that category. The media company that made the show you're after still maintains copyright and legally controls every aspect of distribution.

Ethically is a much more interesting question. If you pirated the media you're after, an older work with no way to watch it legally, the creators aren't really hurt because you're not depriving them of revenue. Pretend there were DVD's to be had though, if you buy them on the second hand market the creator doesn't get a cut of that sale so who's really harmed? What if the new price of the DVD's was more than you could afford or justify spending? If you were never going to be a new customer, does that make it okay to steal since again the creator isn't losing anything?