This is what I thought about chicken and waffles, till I had chicken and waffles.

I have a Firestick with VLC on it that can browse my PC where I’ve got all my downloads. Not the most straightforward, but sometimes I want to watch on my PC and this keeps everything central.

While I agree with your distaste, I hope you remain wary. Their incompetence seems to have the outcome of enriching them and their sponsors. Can you still attribute incompetence when they are benefitting?

Regarding dictatorship, the conservatives right now are setting up a lot of things like anti-protest laws that seem toothless because they haven’t been used to the fullest extent, but the groundwork is there. It won’t take long (likely one election cycle) and I’m sure we’ll see them use it in the fullest extent.

Yeah, he has the right, sure. Nobody says he doesn’t, nobody says he shouldn’t. But right now it’s in the media. It’s stupid. Now there’s more attention drawn to this, and if they lose (though Elon’s musk will likely try to bleed them dry rather than try to straight up win) it’s now not just a claim, it’s a claim backed up by law. He has very little to gain with this stunt.

You think worms are insects?

Cool, then don’t.

People using “honesty” as a veneer to be brutal aren’t the same as people that are genuinely honest.

If you’re talking about having family photos pirated, there’s a privacy issue, not a property issue. Everyone talking about media in privacy talks about distributable media. If you want to include other things, that’s on you, but you’ll be yapping in the void as that isn’t what the conversation is about. Not secrets, or private documents.

As for the term of taking, it’s clear what taking means when you try to erroneously conflate piracy with stealing. It doesn’t mean the same as taking a shit either, it has nothing to do with personal definitions, merely the accepted definitions when talking about either piracy, or stealing.

I’m imposing that property on it because for the overwhelming majority of media that is absolutely the case.

1. If it’s for sale it’s something you do not mind other people seeing. My documents I do not sell because I don’t want people seeing it. If I were to sell them, clearly I don’t mind people seeing it.

2. Making it for sale means you intend to share it, even if conditionally. Also “taking it” doesn’t apply, making a copy isn’t taking anything.

By your own definition, if you TAKE it, you stole it. Nothing is taken.

Very strange comparison, those private copies are specifically private. If you want our comparison to work, I’d be selling these private documents to others… Making them not very private.

Forgery is a specific type of fraud where the copy is presented as an original. I’d say it’s closer, but it’s definitely not a 1:1 accurate comparison

I’m asking you how the creator of the piece of media can tell the difference, because they can’t.

If I make a chair, and someone steals it, I’m down a chair. If I make a chair and someone doesn’t buy it, I still have the chair. There’s a difference to the creator here that isn’t there with digital media. That’s why piracy and theft are not the same thing.

How does seeding work in this case?

And the creator of the piece of media can tell the difference… How?

And the harm is in no way different from someone not buying the game because they aren’t interested in the game.

Then are consumers also victim to people who refuse to buy the game because they are simply not interested? The mechanism is the same.

No, I read it. It just has little to no bearing on the point, which is that there is still no victim. The makers of a game don’t lose anything. They just don’t realize a gain. A pirate is just as bad, and only as bad, as someone who doesn’t make a purchase.

Piracy is victimless, as it doesn’t remove something from the creator. Taking something away would make them a victim. Me not buying a game and not engaging at all with it is the same as not buying a game but still playing it.

You assume every piece of pirated media would otherwise be bought, this is not true at all.

Theft might do that, but piracy doesn’t.