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Um, is it normal for someone to casually admit to pirating stuff?

Rand a. Thor

Rand a. Thor

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
10,213
Greece
Poltergust said:
There's a bit more to it. This is the kind of company where every employee has to get security clearance, and the company itself has very close relations with the federal government. As a result, many of the higher-ups (some of which are military-affiliated) are very by-the-book and rely on employees to follow protocol and such.

So, this is very much not the kind of place where you should talk about such things when they're around, even if it's something this petty.
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Entertainment adjacent, military affiliated higher ups, buddy buddy with big brother, people used to work in the gaming industry. Man I dunno what the hell you guys are working on in that company but it sounds wack.
MrBS said:
+1 to overreaction OP

We've come a long way for streaming ubiquity but I remember having to explain to people services like Netflix in direct comparison to piracy and streaming's convenience rather than its content.

PS thanks for making my day lol
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Honestly the convenience of streaming sites has caught up and even surprassed Netflix. Saw some of them in use from friends and colleagues and they are a far cry from the late 2000s putlocker days.
RPGam3r said:
I honestly won't agree with what seems like the majority here, and to be honest I expected better from this site.
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Most of us don't live in the US or live in country's with a barely exietent disposable income margin. Some of the entertainment out there is far too elusive to spend money on.


nitewulf said:
I'm wondering what you'd do if someone passes you some coke at a party.
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Geoff said:
Some people just love to pirate stuff. Plenty of folks over here have themselves all set up with Android boxes that provide access to all channels worldwide, all sports events, latest movie rips etc. They download ebook PDFs, they rip games off, they use dodgy Spotify accounts where you pay once for unlimited lifetime use etc etc and they openly talk about it all the time, discussing the latest news on which service has been blocked or what VPN to use. IDGAF up to the point at which they find out you pay for stuff and they try and mock you for not knowing how to get stuff for free. I know how to do it motherfucker, I just choose not to. This seems genuinely baffling to them. They just can't understand it.

Personally, I think you should pay for stuff if you can afford it but if you're skint and you wouldn't be able to buy this stuff otherwise, then go for it. Or if there is no way to get something legally.

Apart from books. No-one should be ripping books off. They cost fuck-all, provide hours of entertainment and the author isn't getting rich apart from a select few.
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Honestly the only books that are debatable are University books, some of those prices are scams. Not just in the US but all over the world.
 

Deleted member 227

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
852
It always cracks me up when staff is going ridiculously out of their way to silence anyone even hinting at pirating, but somehow posting a link to YouTube with the same song upload is okay. Not every content creator has resources to DMCA every upload. Think of how many YouTube links on this board is actually piracy.

... But it's okay when the sugar daddy corporation approves it, right?
 

Deleted member 52442

User requested account closure
Banned
Jan 24, 2019
10,774
Burai said:
OP's story reminds me of when I was at a mall about 20 years ago with a friend and some of his friends that I didn't really know. We come across this guy selling N64 controller-shaped Famiclones from a stall. One of these dudes suddenly blurts out "These consoles are illegal! You're stealing from Nintendo!" at the top of his high-pitched voice. I don't know whether he thought the guy would run off or if a mob would form to tear the stall apart, but there was just this awful silence.

We all walk/run away pretty embarrassed and this kid follows and he's absolutely shaking with rage. He can't shut up about the guy selling these Famiclones. "He's destroying the industry! We need to do something!" Next thing he's calling the police who basically laughed at him down the phone and told him to stop wasting their time. He then called Nintendo who said they didn't really have anyone who could help him and that maybe he could write a letter with the details so they could investigate.

I didn't hang out with him again.
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jesus
 
SoundLad

SoundLad

Member
Oct 30, 2017
2,249
Talking about what shows people pirated and who's external hard drive they're on was a daily talking point between my old boss and coworkers. Nobody gives a shit, basically.

I think you might have overreacted just a little bit lol.
 
Rand a. Thor

Rand a. Thor

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
10,213
Greece
Monsoon said:
It always cracks me up when staff is going ridiculously out of their way to silence anyone even hinting at pirating, but somehow posting a link to YouTube with the same song upload is okay. Not every content creator has resources to DMCA every upload. Think of how many YouTube links on this board is actually piracy.

... But it's okay when the sugar daddy corporation approves it, right?
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Youtube piracy at this point isn't even piracy, if they were to go 100% legal they would legitimately have to reset the entire site and work from the ground up. Far too many videos on youtube are illegitimate content to surgically remove them.
 
StraySheep

StraySheep

Member
Oct 26, 2017
8,275
Zemst said:
I know the we're on a website with the restrictions about the topic you mention but I promise you 99% of folks don't react the way you do. I know most people with a fire stick got it for one purpose only, I would tell you but I don't want you having a heart attack.
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Tell me because i don't know what people are doing with a firestick
 
GiantEnemyCrab

GiantEnemyCrab

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,637
I haven't pirated a game in like 20 years.

I had a coworker who casually mentioned pirating EA games because "that'll show 'em". I didn't say anything but I cringed. We worked at a company developing and licensing ("selling") software.
 
P-MAC

P-MAC

Member
Nov 15, 2017
4,446
Burai said:
OP's story reminds me of when I was at a mall about 20 years ago with a friend and some of his friends that I didn't really know. We come across this guy selling N64 controller-shaped Famiclones from a stall. One of these dudes suddenly blurts out "These consoles are illegal! You're stealing from Nintendo!" at the top of his high-pitched voice. I don't know whether he thought the guy would run off or if a mob would form to tear the stall apart, but there was just this awful silence.

We all walk/run away pretty embarrassed and this kid follows and he's absolutely shaking with rage. He can't shut up about the guy selling these Famiclones. "He's destroying the industry! We need to do something!" Next thing he's calling the police who basically laughed at him down the phone and told him to stop wasting their time. He then called Nintendo who said they didn't really have anyone who could help him and that maybe he could write a letter with the details so they could investigate.

I didn't hang out with him again.
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I bet this guy works in Nintendo's ninja squad now.
 
reminiscingLemon

reminiscingLemon

Member
Nov 18, 2017
1,271
lmao OP you need to check behind your ears, still a little wet behind there.
Poltergust said:
I mean, would you say that sort of thing within earshot of your boss?
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My boss literally just gave me 3 DVD data discs with 4 movies on each disc, we work in government. Nobody cares, hell after the #meToo movement im beginning to find paying for films to be more unethical than just stealing them at this point.
 
Skade

Skade

Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,832
Well, considering that one of my coworker is openly telling us that he is selling aimbots for some fps games... Let's just say that talking about "pirated" games/movies/tv shows is quite common in my workplace (and in fact, absolutely everywhere, police stations included).
 
Athrum

Athrum

Member
Oct 18, 2019
1,335
Poltergust said:
A bit off-topic, but isn't the purpose of jaywalking laws to remove culpability from drivers during traffic accidents, rather than to prosecute jaywalkers?
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You have just a naive way of thinking that makes me believe that you're either younger than you made us think you are or lived a very abundant and sheltered life.
 
Dirtyshubb

Dirtyshubb

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,555
UK
To give some perspective on how much of a non issue this is for some places, I knew someone applying for higher security clearance for a government job.

This requires a complete review of your personal life where they come into the interview with a massive file and essentially know everything about you. They ask about your porn habits, know about early pet names and a tonne of other weird stuff.

They asked if the person had ever pirated stuff before and him knowing he was fucked because he did it a tonne, constantly, just said he used to and used it more as a rental service to decide before buying the product.

After the interview the interviewer took him to the side and basically said to make sure he doesn't do it anymore. He got the iob and he just carried on as usual.
 
Rimon-Hanit

Rimon-Hanit

Member
Oct 27, 2017
329
Yeah I'm not even sure if you're serious but piracy is very common and most people that I know do it out of convince rather then any financial reason
 
Montresor

Montresor

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,209
The only reason I don't pirate video games is I enjoy collecting everything in my Xbox Live account (achievements, game history, etc). And the only reason I don't pirate Netflix content is I live the convenience of starting and watching shows and having the service remember where I last left off.
 
random88

random88

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,279
Not US
Lol, in my country piracy is still THE norm.
At least with games, I'm not surprised since they cost much more than in the US and we have way lower wages. And our market is too small for Steam to adjust prices like for Russia.
I haven't pirated a game in the last 10 years, since I earn my money, but when you have to spend 25-30% of an average monthly income for one game (or somehow convince your parents to do so), I can't fault people for doing that.
 
NekoNeko

NekoNeko

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
18,447
did you just wake up from a coma? lots of people pirate stuff and nobody gives a shit when they talk about it.

especially movies and tv shows, everyone pirates those.
 
Bman94

Bman94

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,542
In high school we didn't care because we were all broke and pirated shit.

Now as an adult with somewhat disposable income I definitely think "what the fuck are you doing" when people pirate shit.
 
Conkerkid11

Conkerkid11

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
13,941
Students openly post links to textbook torrents in my school's Slack server.

During the syllabus day 1 of a class, a student suggested people pirate the textbook and the professor was like "ummm... Okay..." And continued on with what he was telling us.
 
Geoff

Geoff

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,115
This is a textbook example of someone spending way too much time on this forum and not enough time IRL.
 
BLEEN

BLEEN

Member
Oct 27, 2017
21,862
Someone post how piracy actually gets more sales to the companies and/or breaks even.

19 pages in here, probably posted already.

I try to stay away from piracy threads but the info and studies behind it are fascinating. I'll just say that.
 
danm999

danm999

Member
Oct 29, 2017
17,074
Sydney
It's incredibly common behaviour I've seen lots of people talk about in a professional setting. I don't think it registers as a crime for most people so much as a misdemeanour or lesser offence like a parking ticket or jaywalking.
 
1.21Gigawatts

1.21Gigawatts

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Oct 25, 2017
3,278
Munich
I had professors at University who recommended websites where you could basically pirate academic papers.
It sounds weird but makes a lot of sense. If they want us to work scientifically we need access to scientific work.
I've been using Sci-Hub ever since. Even when you have access to several databases with papers through the University and other things, most of the time it's just easier and quicker to use Sci-Hub.

However, this was the only instance where someone talked about piracy openly and I thought it was weird at first.
In all other instances, it's completely normal. I worked for a streaming service for 4 years and even there its completely normal, even though the need to pirate was lower since everyone had test accounts obviously.

I also think that piracy is going to make a big comeback. While streaming was so cheap and convenient that it kinda made piracy obsolete, we are now entering a situation where content is being divided between so many different services that it becomes reasonable to pirate stuff again, because it makes no sense to have several different subscriptions services just because some suits think they want to exclusively offer their content on their own platform.
 
BLEEN

BLEEN

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Oct 27, 2017
21,862
In the US at least, most piracy is actually the act of uploading the material not downloading. That's the legal way of putting it anyway. I've been interested in the inner-workings of it since Napster I'd say.

There are a ton of great articles and lawyer-y stuffs and whatnot. Let me see if I can pull some up.
 
shaneo632

shaneo632

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Oct 29, 2017
28,963
Wrexham, Wales
Yup nobody cares. There are billions of streaming sites that allow you to watch movies at the click of a button and torrent sites are the wild west.
 
Rurouni Kenshin

Rurouni Kenshin

Member
Mar 8, 2019
21
I haven't pirated anything in a long while. Steam and netflix fixed most of it. But now with all these competing video streaming companies its getting harder and harder not to download tv shows instead and just remove my Netflix subscription. TV shows are just getting split over more and more companies. HBO, Netflix, Disney, Hulu. How many more will come?
 
BLEEN

BLEEN

Member
Oct 27, 2017
21,862
1.21Gigawatts said:
I also think that piracy is going to make a big comeback. While streaming was so cheap and convenient that it kinda made piracy obsolete, we are now entering a situation where content is being divided between so many different services that it becomes reasonable to pirate stuff again, because it makes no sense to have several different subscriptions services just because some suits think they want to exclusively offer their content on their own platform
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This is exactly what's happening. We're nearly back to square one a decade ago lol

We've come so far and for what?!
 
Biske

Biske

Member
Nov 11, 2017
8,253
Tathanen said:
"Dude, did you just admit to a crime?"

lol?

This is definitely a You Thing.
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Hahahah for real. People pirate shit all the time and its super obvious. on this forum, every day life, all the time.

Its not right and most people aren't so blunt about it but it's clear. Just check a classic console hack thread
 

Deleted member 17402

User requested account closure
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Oct 27, 2017
7,125
"Admit to a crime?"

Trying to picture OP talking to someone in a US state with sodomy laws.

"You do the butt crime????"
 
1.21Gigawatts

1.21Gigawatts

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,278
Munich
Also, technically the majority of the Beat Saber community is pirates. One of the reasons why that game is so successful is piracy.
There are many games that greatly benefit from user-generated content thats technically piracy.

The thing about copyright law is that is a set of laws that was introduced not because of a societal necessity but because businesses wanted it. And they've been introduced a long time ago and are now hopelessly inadequate in many areas.
No one has come up with a better solution, though.
 

Polk

Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
4,202
BLEEN said:
This is exactly what's happening. We're nearly back to square one a decade ago lol

We've come so far and for what?!
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I think we are in the better place (more avaiable content) but I understand most people don't want to manage their subcriptions on monthly basis. It's unnecessary burden companies prey on. I only get HBO for 1-2 months/year. Probably similiar will happen with D+.
 
BLEEN

BLEEN

Member
Oct 27, 2017
21,862
Polk said:
I think we are in the better place (more avaiable content) but I understand most people don't want to manage their subcriptions on monthly basis. It's unnecessary burden companies pray on. I only get HBO for 1-2 months/year. Probably similiar will happen with D+.
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It's better for sure, but for now only. In a year or two we're back to cable subscription prices and then some.

This is without mentioning the absurd price of going to the theater.
 
BigMack

BigMack

Member
Oct 27, 2017
565
My 86 yr old grandma called me a couple years ago and asked "how do I get one of them kodi sticks?" She was mad at directv bc they got rid of her local CBS station. Her neighbor told her about kodi and streaming channels.

So yeah most people dont see anything wrong with it. It's like a 21st century version of cable black boxes from back in the day. Tons of people had one
 
Mona

Mona

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
26,151
Burai said:
OP's story reminds me of when I was at a mall about 20 years ago with a friend and some of his friends that I didn't really know. We come across this guy selling N64 controller-shaped Famiclones from a stall. One of these dudes suddenly blurts out "These consoles are illegal! You're stealing from Nintendo!" at the top of his high-pitched voice. I don't know whether he thought the guy would run off or if a mob would form to tear the stall apart, but there was just this awful silence.

We all walk/run away pretty embarrassed and this kid follows and he's absolutely shaking with rage. He can't shut up about the guy selling these Famiclones. "He's destroying the industry! We need to do something!" Next thing he's calling the police who basically laughed at him down the phone and told him to stop wasting their time. He then called Nintendo who said they didn't really have anyone who could help him and that maybe he could write a letter with the details so they could investigate.

I didn't hang out with him again.
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We finally found the kid whose uncle works there
 
DBT85

DBT85

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Member
Oct 26, 2017
16,245
GiantEnemyCrab said:
I haven't pirated a game in like 20 years.

I had a coworker who casually mentioned pirating EA games because "that'll show 'em". I didn't say anything but I cringed. We worked at a company developing and licensing ("selling") software.
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If you think people who make content don't also pirate content I have bad news for you.
 
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