Intellectual property is theft by the corporations — it is literally charging us to partake in our own culture. And if you’re a creator and create something derivative, expect tens of thousands in a legal judgement against you just because you’re a creative fan. Even decades after the creator is dead, and can no longer benefit.

>it is literally charging us to partake in our own culture

If I create something it's not your culture unless I decide to share it.

If you agree to erase your memory of all culture surrounding you and to create truly from blank than your statement could have some sense.

The culture around our current set of movies very very very likely wouldn't exist without for profit markets for that IP. Sorry my blood, sweat, tears in making new items isn't "free" for you to take unless I release it as free (which I certainly have in the past). I mean you can steal it obviously because it's an IT product but that doesn't make it moral at least not in my culture.

The current set of movies wouldn't be possible without thousands of years of myths, legends, stories and other fiction that was in public domain when these movies were made. Are you willing to pay countries royalties for their myths and legends.

Mel Gibson definitely ripped off the Bible in Passion of the Christ. He should pay royalties to the one true church.

You know the one.

But I’m not sure what the Discordians would do with all that money.

Campaign to get ddate back on most distros?

To the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster obviously.

It generally wouldn’t be piratable if you chose to never release it at all.

Just by creating it? Indeed, that doesn't necessarily make it my culture.

However, it does become my culture once my entire city is plastered with posters for it, its music plays on every radio twice a day, my children play with toys based on its characters, and/or conversations with my friends refer to it years after the thing came out.

Piracy is the only way to disarm this immoral system where all the "legal" alternatives are basic assaults on our consumer rights that leaves us with no real good ethical choice,

Your comment makes sense only to someone who already agrees with you and is similarly informed/misinformed. It does not provide any insight to those not sharing the same knowledge as you.

Right off the bat, anyone can contest:

- "only"

- "immoral"

- "assaults"

- "ethical"

Your comment provides no context or support for any of these.

If you want an essay, we can agree to a rate and I can write it after you send me the check.

If you want people to "disarm an immoral system", you're not going to get far if you want to be paid to convince them.

"One should not use X!"

"Why?"

"Pay me and I'll explain!"

I don't want to convince them of anything.

Because we still have DRM in 2021.

It's disgraceful.

The Walt Disney Company. One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

I don’t see much of an issue with Disney getting paid for the new content they produce. If I want to watch the new Bad Batch episodes, I can either pay for a Disney+ subscription and increase the official view count, thereby increasing the project’s revenue and likelihood the folks working on it have their contracts renewed, or I can convince myself Disney is some evil corporation consisting of people who don’t deserve to be compensated for their efforts and pirate it. Back when I was a kid with no assets to my name piracy made some sense. However, now that I have the means to support creators, I do.

> Back when I was a kid with no assets to my name piracy made some sense. However, now that I have the means to support creators, I do.

This is the most sensible argument I've heard for being anti-piracy. It is a matter of means, and I've had a similar experience with my approach to piracy.

I'd be interested to know more statistics about what demographics perform piracy and on what kinds of media.

I'm not entirely sure, but perhaps there's an argument to be made that since it's pretty much the only way to get DRM free copies of certain materials piracy at times is justified.