this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2024
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[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 104 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Friendly reminder that pirates didn't usually stole gold. Piracy was stealing shipping goods, then selling them for profit at some port. Digital piracy is thus defined as acquiring, and then distributing for profit, media that you don't own the copyrights of. Ad blocking is categorically not piracy.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 31 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Also, "piracy" or "copyright infringement" isn't theft in any sense.

A key element of theft is that you deprive the rightful owner of something. You now have it and they no longer do. What makes it wrong is that the person who should have it no longer does. It's not that you have it. That's why the punishment for "mischief" where someone completely destroys something belonging to someone else is similar to the punishment for the theft of that same object.

Copyright infringement is breaking the rule that the state imposed giving someone the exclusive right to control the copying of something. You're not depriving anyone of anything tangible when you infringe a copyright. They still have the original, they still have any copies they made, any copies they gave out or sold are still where they were. The only thing you're doing is violating the rule that gave them exclusive control. If you're depriving someone of anything, it's depriving them of the opportunity they might have had to make money from selling a copy.

If anything, copyright infringement is more similar to trespassing than to theft. Just like copyright infringement, trespassing involves not allowing someone to control who accesses their property. If you sneak onto someone's campground property and have a bonfire party, the person loses the opportunity to rent out the campground for the bonfire, and any money they might have received for doing that. But, if you sneak in and sneak out and leave no trace, you could argue that nobody is harmed.

[–] HK65@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If you sneak onto someone’s campground property and have a bonfire party

Ah, I would say that is worse than piracy, since you deprive them of the ground for a time. A better analogy would be sneaking into the party they are having and enjoying it with them without paying for an invitation. Or sneaking into a concert.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

Ah, I would say that is worse than piracy, since you deprive them of the ground for a time.

Maybe, in my mind I was picturing a situation where someone had lots of property and didn't realize that anything had happened. I see your point though, that in theory you're depriving them of the use of it whereas with copyright infringement there isn't even a second where they can't enjoy their own property. They only potentially lose out on a sale.

Sneaking into a concert that isn't full is probably a better analogy. You get the experience of the concert without paying for it, and the venue owner maybe loses out on a sale without knowing it.

[–] Gingernate@programming.dev 21 points 1 month ago

Closing your eyes, walking out of the room, changing the channel during the commercial break, all piracy. Hahahahahhahaha. Fuck these corporations

It doesn't have to be for profit, but it does require distribution of content you don't have the rights to redistribute. I think it's also fine to lump in acquiring content that you don't have the rights to (i.e. it doesn't matter which end of the transaction you're part of).

Blocking ads is merely a TOS violation, and it only applies if you actually agree to the TOS. If you don't consent to the TOS and the platform doesn't make any attempt to prevent you from using the service, then I think you have an argument that the TOS doesn't apply. I use YouTube w/o a YouTube account, so I don't consent to their TOS, but they still happily serve up content. So in my understanding, I'm not even violating any TOS because I haven't agreed to any, I'm just using their website with an add-on that blocks certain URLs. If YouTube decides to prevent me from accessing their content w/o agreeing to their TOS, then I'll probably stop watching YouTube, or maybe I'll decide to accept their TOS, idk, because it hasn't happened yet.

That said, I do feel bad for creators not making money from me blocking YouTube's ads, so I tend to donate or buy merch on occasion, and that eases my conscience. Regardless, I'm quite sure that if YouTube tried to argue that blacking ads was somehow a copyright violation, that they'd lose.

[–] silentknyght@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You're being pedantic, but I'm sure you understand the point.

[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

I'll spare you the troubles.