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Helping those with Neurodivergent Minds find their way through a neurotypical world.
Helping those with Neurodivergent Minds find their way through a neurotypical world.
I want to talk about a topic that might be controversial for some people: the concept and legality of piracy even if you have bought the original product. What do I mean by piracy? Well, according to the dictionary, piracy is “the unauthorized use or reproduction of another’s work”. This can include copying a book, a movie, a song, a software, or any other creative product without permission from the owner or paying a fee.
Piracy can also refer to hijacking or robbing ships at sea, but that’s not what I’m interested in here. Though, that is a fun life to be had!
So, why would someone pirate something if they already own it? There are many possible reasons, but some of the most common ones are:
Now, the question is: is piracy legal or ethical if you have bought the original product? The answer is not so simple. It depends on many factors, such as:
I want to be clear in saying this, I used to pirate everything growing up. I grew up in the Napster/Kazaa/Etc days of piracy and continued through college with mIRC and other means. Why I did that back then was because I had no money, barely had a working computer. Probably because of the pirated software.
Since those times, I turned around and buy everything now. I have subscriptions to every streaming service, spend ungodly money every year to keep Adobe’s Creative Suite going, and even buy movies to stream from time to time.
Lately, I have been on the fence about the release of The Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom. The lastest of Link’s adventures from Nintendo. It was cracked and working on emulators at 60 Frames a Second at a 4k resolution. Just 24 hours after it was released retail.
I was stunned, but then I thought about it. If I buy the game, then use this emulated version, is it really a problem? Am I doing a bad thing? The switch can barely handle the 30fps and resolution it has, but my top of the line workstation can do it all and thensome. What if I do it for ALL the games I have already purchased? Is it immoral to do so?
So, what do I think about piracy? Well, I think it’s a complex and nuanced issue that has no clear-cut answer. I think piracy can be justified in some cases, but not in others. It can be beneficial in some ways, but harmful in others. Piracy is legal in some places, but illegal in others. I think piracy can be ethical in some situations, but unethical in others. It’s so grey.
What do you think about piracy? Do you pirate anything? If so, why? If not, why not? Let me know in the comments below! And don’t forget to like and subscribe for more content like this! Thanks for reading!
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