this post was submitted on 29 May 2024
127 points (100.0% liked)

Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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[–] [email protected] 127 points 10 months ago (1 children)

By making us able to actually buy them, right? Right? 🫠

[–] [email protected] 109 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Piracy is a service problem

[–] [email protected] 49 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Japan clearly doesn't understand they need to make a Steam for manga.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Easy billions

[–] [email protected] 36 points 10 months ago

Give me something that's not worse than pirate sites and I'll throw money at you. Crunchyroll was great for that few months when it went legit before it enshat.

I should never be in awe at the quality of the pirate sites over the liegit services.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (3 children)

In general, yes, but in this case I don't think there's any way for the service to beat piracy even if the service was just as good (which it isn't). Take the One Piece manga, for example. A lot of people read it from illegitimate sources simply because they can manage to release it two to three days earlier than the official every week. You can read it for free online in your local language once the magazine reach the shelves in Japan, but even that is too late because the contents gets leaked while all the partners are preparing for that simultaneous release.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 10 months ago (1 children)

A lot of people read it from illegitimate sources simply because they can manage to release it two to three days earlier than the official every week.

This still sounds like a service problem.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It would be a service problem if the chapter was released officially in one language then translated to others by pirates faster than the official company, but that is not the case. The official Sunday release includes the English, Spanish and Portuguese translations (among others) and they are all made available at the same time, for free for several regions.

Pirate websites only manage to release it faster because they get access to the unfinished product and then have people work on them with no regards to any work laws in order to finish and release it as soon as possible without any schedule or time constraint.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Pirate websites only manage to release it faster because they get access to the unfinished product and then have people work on them with no regards to any work laws in order to finish and release it as soon as possible without any schedule or time constraint.

This is the context that was missing from the original comment. I agree, this does not sound like a service problem.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 months ago

"No, because *proceeds to explain the definition of a service problem *"

My guy if they export only some mangas and animes, much slower, and with lower quality than pirates, then shoot the characters with the american ray; why should i pay them instead of having a superior and closer to original experience?

I'm already paying for HDDs and other hardware for my home media library, I'd rather pay for a service and save my time, but they won't do it right.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

In this case I'd say it's more of a "I'd need a bookcase specifically for that 1000+ manga"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

speak for yourself, I'll go for the free option

[–] [email protected] 82 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Let's fight piracy!!!

People outside japan can buy the 1000000 mangas available? We have a way to translate this many mangas? Do we have a fucking online service that doesn't suck a lot? People have any hope to read legally that one random obscure manga that doesn't even exist anymore beside some random piracy site? But we gonna fight piracy anyway!!!

This kinda o shit + nintendo + sony fills my hatred for Japanese companies, more bullshit and I'll become more powerful in the dark side than Palpatine.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (5 children)

~~Hey hey now. Don't hate the companies themselves. They're playing the legal game in the exact, only way the rules allow it to be played. If they don't, the law and the shareholders fuck them up instead.~~

Edit: I guess tone is hard to convey through text, so let me be clear:

Companies bad.

But also:

Just hate the copyright law itself, directly. Its only reason for existence is so rich fucks get richer, safer, and should be just abolished.

(45 minute video by Uniquenameosaurus, who also has done an incredible series of videos on the practical ethics of media piracy, with a focus on anime as a jumping off point).

[–] [email protected] 41 points 10 months ago

"Don't hate the companies, hate the people who lobbied for copyright laws... the companies!"

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

The companies are to blame for the maintaining bullshit laws like this, but also Japanese companies in particular are the most aggressive and putrid with copyright laws. Sony probably makes more money from copyrighted music on youtube than selling exclusive games for the PS5.

Edit: Btw the real blame in the end of the day is the late stage capitalism that we live in.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I don't agree with that video, and I'm sure that a good chunk of talented creators wouldn't appreciate losing control of their own works. Copyright needs to be rewritten, but abolished is quite a huge overcorrection

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Make your own works and have it your own name on it. But everybody can copy from eachother.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I already understand the point of the video. I'm saying that the point of the video doesn't reflect the wishes and wills of all artists. If someone pours their heart and soul into something, they should have reasonable control over how that something is used by other people. The last thing we want is to demotivate those artists from making great works.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

"Reasonable control" is only possible in the legal sense, not the real sense, so I doubt artists care about it, outside of monetisation, which is what we're attempting to replace.

Right now as we are speaking, the art of thousands upon thousands of those creators is being stolen constantly by legally gray AI scraping by huge companies, or illegally by smaller merch leeches.

The internet makes data protection impossible.

The law, only prevents the most egregious kinds of 'monetisation with someone else's art', and is unable to stop the rest, for practical reasons.

If artists didn't have to worry about being compensated enough... Would they still want to have "reasonable control"? Would we still "risk" them being "demotivated", from being unable to forbid others specifically from making money with their ideas?

I think the human drive to create isn't that neurotic. I think this kind of "demotivation" only happens for the kind of human who has been abused for years by the rules of the absurd economy we live in. And that's what we're saying should change.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Reasonable control in the legal sense does matter though. Right now, a majority of creatives don't own their IP in the legal sense, and they can't stop large companies from milking their works dry as a result. In the absence of IP laws, creatives would be able to create their works, but they'd also be competing against companies that have the resources to monetize, influence the general public, and kill the franchise through poor choices.

It's really important to know that the vast majority of people aren't going to have the goodwill to tip or otherwise support free works, and it's even less likely if a large company does enough marketing to overshadow an artist.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I'm getting the sense that you didn't actually watch the whole video, because your only two points in this comment,

In the absence of IP laws, creatives would be able to create their works, but they'd also be competing against companies that have the resources to monetize, influence the general public, and kill the franchise through poor choices.

And

It's really important to know that the vast majority of people aren't going to have the goodwill to tip or otherwise support free works, and it's even less likely if a large company does enough marketing to overshadow an artist.

, are answered during the video, and I don't see you arguing the points made by him, you're just straight up stating the opposite.

And your first point,

Right now, a majority of creatives don't own their IP in the legal sense, and they can't stop large companies from milking their works dry as a result.

, is about how the current system doesn't work to protect actual artists, yet does work to protect large IP-pimping companies.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

should be just abolished

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

companies should please share holders and share holders should profit from their shares as much as possible, the whole cycle is fucked when one of them becomes greedier.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I like this logic, lets all become shareholders.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

if only we had enough money. even if we do, more the material posses, more the greed will eat the man.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 10 months ago (2 children)

That's what happens when you let Crunchyroll and Funimation merge. Im going to be the pirate king!

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago

mfers raised the yearly price from 80 USD to 100 this year, and then they sent me an email that next year it'll be 120! a 50% increase in two years, insane.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Crunchyroll started as a pirate site didn't it?

[–] [email protected] 46 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 34 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Speaking of thwarting piracy, how about Japan stops slaughtering whales and respecting the treaties they have signed first?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago

Protecting corporate interests is so hot right now though.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I never thought I'd call out a whataboutism over whatever the hell this is.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

It's a half-pun about actual piracy. Not sure if illegal fishing is actually considered piracy, but that's the idea.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago

Pirates do what Nintendon't

[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The answer has always been I2P! they can nothing against what is shared on it!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Second that, I wish i2p was more popular.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago

I won't be pirating manga if I can actually pay for them. Some apps exist, like mangaplus, but they pale in comparison to something like tachiyomi. And then there is webtoon which shoves an ad in my face even though I purchase content weekly to read. And webnovel is atrocious with how I have to wait 5 seconds for an ad before they show me yet another ad every time I open the app. I just use koreader now for novels. I do buy physical volumes to show some support back. But a Korean series that I am reading does not have a novel published overseas, kind of a bummer.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

They accomplish that and the already diminutive presence they have in the world will shrink even more.