quirzle @ quirzle @kbin.social

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Joined

2 yr. ago

If buying is not owning, then piracy is not stealing.

It's its own, separate thing.

"Piracy isn't stealing" doesn't require a qualifier. It's objectively a separate, lesser crime. That correlation is just the result of effective, aggressive marketing that conflates the two. It was so effective that everyone misremembers the "you wouldn't steal a car" ad.

I get .flac files that are generally tagged with everything except genre. Bandcamp (where I legally obtain files when I can) doesn't tag genre either, so it's at least consistent across my library.

Why not? Because ISP don’t snitch on you in case of illegal streaming?

Correct. ISPs aren't monitoring for this stuff. They're responding to complaints they get from copyright owners. With torrents, anyone in downloading the file can see IPs for everyone they're downloading from. That's how companies get IPs to follow up on, and why VPNs protect you (they'd just the IP of a VPN server). They then compile lists of these IPs, send to ISPs, who are then compelled by the courts to send letters and eventually disconnect you if you get caught again.

With streaming sites, the only one seeing your IP is the host of the site. Of course they're not going to snitch, since you're just watching the illegal stream they've made available. They're the ones breaking the law in that case, you're just watching a public stream. Obviously, you're not expected to know whether every video on youtube was uploaded by the copyright owner. Instead, the onus for that falls on the uploader and host.

And what about usenet, I’ve read about it but I didn’t get it? Can you brief it out? How it similar to torrents and how it’s different?

Super high level: there's two external parts, an indexer and a usenet provider. The indexer indexes .nzb files that serve as references to file locations on the usernet provider. Practically speaking, it maps pretty closely to .torrent files and the actual content you're grabbing from peers, respectively. The important difference here is that the usenet providers host the content, rather than a bunch of random people (which can include corporate attorneys looking to contact your ISP).

Locally, you still use a client piece of software to download. You can send it a .nzb, and assuming it's configured correctly with your usenet provider(s), will download the content.

Other important differences: 1. usenet indexers and providers are going to cost money, unlike torrenting. They tend to be pretty reasonable if you're downloading a lot though. 2. Because the providers are more centralized than torrents, there's some quirks. Retention is a factor, and generally the older something is, the harder it'll be to find (or more expensive plan you'll need with your provider), and not all providers have everything (so heavier users may need multiple providers to cover all their needs). A single good provider covers like 99% of what I need though.

This is accurate.

Just downloading/consuming isn't the illegal part. It's why you hear about torrent users getting ISP notices, but not people who download from usenet or watch pirate sports streams.

Having your own internet connection costs money too. If being absolutely free is a requirement, go without a VPN on the McD's free wifi.

I use a similar approach with Tidal and Tidal-Media-Downloader. I use a paid Tidal account to integrate into my Plex library, then scripted downloads to ensure that stuff stays in my Plex library.

PIA is about twice that if you pay for 3 years at a time. It's more, but you continue to keep everything you torrent, which is a bonus over Hulu.

That type I think blurs the line on what actually is piracy versus the guy handing out demo tapes on the corner. It’s a sort of a ‘I absolutely don’t want you to go download my stuff, particularly from this link or this link…’

Not at all. I don't mean artists distributing their own tapes; this was primarily fans copying the tape they bought, recording off the radio, or recording bootlegs of concerts. (see also) There was even the ad campaign driving home that making your own cassettes in such a manner is illegal and "killing the music industry," which is obviously didn't.

As for the rest of what you said, I think it's important to keep that not everyone obtains music the same way. Plenty of people use ripping software, modified client software, etc. to pirate via streaming services too. It's not just filling a niche, but a reliable source of mainstream music too (assuming you do it before they pull it down because of the licensing BS). And as a frequent Bandcamp patron, albums can still be expensive and most songs still cost $1 (though, without the shit DRM).

I'd argue Bandcamp does Artists set the price, and the files downloaded are .flac or mp3 without any DRM.

They got sold, which resulted in layoffs recently...so no telling how long it lasts. But right now, they're reasonable in my book.

How many people really discover new music through piracy?

Everyone I've ever known. I mostly listen to metal, which undeniably became what it is because of people mailing pirated cassettes in the early 80s. 8 of my 10 favorite bands, I discovered by finding someone with good taste on Soulseek and grabbing the stuff I'd never heard of before. Piracy is key in the spread of underground music.

Artists that sell out stadiums wouldn't be affected much, but the ones that actually need the concert income absolutely would.

That has not been my experience.

I certainly wasn't calling him dumb because he makes coherent, logically consistent arguments.

Being a proud pirate is some of the dumbest shit on the planet.

Not as dumb as the people who go to piracy forums to complain about piracy being stealing.

The Plex watchlists seemed stupid and pointless to me...until someone pointed out you can subscribe to your Plex watchlist in Radarr/Sonarr. Now, I can watch trailers on Plex, add stuff, and it shows up automatically when released. Super convenient.

since PIA got bought out

For what it's worth, I opted to wait until I had my first issue with PIA after the buyout to switch and it just never really happened. I've remained on PIA for my sea-sailing needs, and still haven't had an ISP email or other problem with them, other than the client being a little janky on occasion.

I'm not an active advocate or anything, but my experience is that they're still good enough, even years after the acquisition. Perhaps they're using the data for something behind the scenes, but it's cheap and keeps my ISP off my back. I'd at least still consider it in the "good enough for this purpose" category.

People enjoy their circlejerking.

It is only available via piracy.

You can stream it on Amazon. Disney sucks, but there's no need to spread misinformation to make that point.

The worst part of the 6P battery stuff was how shitty Google/Fi support handled it. There was a class action lawsuit, and I just needed to show records of my replacement (and then replacement of my replacement) for that issue. They straight up lied to me in chat about having never contacted support about the issue. I had an interaction that was literally:

You can confirm this is my third Nexus 6P, yes?

Yes.

You can confirm they all came directly from you?

Yes.

You can confirm I only purchased the first one?

Yes.

Why did you send me a second and third phone?

We do not have record of this.

Fortunately, I still had the phone and recorded a video of the phone powering itself off at 65% and was able to provide that as evidence...but I'm still salty about it all. It's why I have not and will not own a Pixel or use Fi ever again.

Lucky.

I had a Nexus 6P that'd power down at 70% battery remaining, a Note 4 that stopped accepting input from the (undamaged as far as I could tell) screen, two other Samsungs with unreliable fingerprint readers, one of those also had a camera that stopped autofocusing and basically became useless. The Samsungs also had a myriad of charger issues from the phantom water detection to one that started getting super hot and melted a USB cable and nearly caught fire while mounted in my car.