Pluralistic: “If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing” (08 Dec 2023) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.net

The ability to change features, prices, and availability of things you’ve already paid for is a powerful temptation to corporations.

    • Camille_Jamal@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      11 days ago

      Exactly this. There are a few main categories id use for quality/piracy.

      Standard/Common categories:

      1. Low. The media is pirated a low amount compared to legitimate purchases. The quality may be low, content may be hard to pirate, or the userbase may not know of piracy.

      2. Moderate. The media is pirated a similar amount to legitimate purchases. The media may not be worth the money, people may be purchasing after pirating, or people like it but can’t afford a legitimate copy.

      3. Often. The media is pirated often compared to purchases. It may be priced too high for users or better known in piracy communities. It may be high quality, low quantity, or required for some jobs or other important tasks.

      Nonstandard/Rare categories:

      1. Unknown. The media is known so little that there’s barely any pirates getting the media. No known media quality based off piracy rate.

      2. High to low. The media may start with a high amount of piracy, as it is new and people want to try it. The piracy rate drops and the legitimate purchases skyrocket. The creators may have broken the pirated version, it may have been taken down, or people may be telling each other to buy a legitimate copy. The most recent known example is Hollow Knight: Silksong. The media is either owned by strict person(s) or it may be decided that people should support creators, the first may be lower quality, and the second is almost always extremely high quality.

      3. Low to high. It is at first not pirated often, legitimate purchases drop off and pirated versions are more popular. This may be a work software, as many may be required to use it, but don’t want to, or can’t purchase it. This is common for locally operated work software, mediocre media, or banned media.

      Please correct me where I’m wrong or name a category of your own, and I will try to adjust this list.

      This took a while to write, as automatic correction, commonly known as autocorrect was fighting me tooth and nail. Thanks all and sorry for responding 2 years late.

      Edit: the list numbers cause it to indent with no number. How curious.