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Comment by net01

8 months ago

This is not a piracy app; it's a torrent client app.

It's just used to share files. I use it to share my videos & photos of my cat.

it would be nice if someone had a backbone and fought Apple like Epic's Tim Sweeney.

15 comments

net01

Reply
freedomben  8 months ago

You are of course correct, but you misunderstand the PR machine. Apple can easily claim they are combatting piracy, and 99.5% of all people will accept that as doctrine. The truth doesn't matter.

  • dkiebd  8 months ago

    But people benefit from piracy, so I doubt people will support Apple here. Media companies on the other hand…

    • chii  8 months ago

      > But people benefit from piracy

      the benefit is private. Nobody would publicly claim they support piracy, because it's too politically incorrect.

      So the PR machine doesn't have a hard job at all convincing law makers of a non-truth, despite privately that people would generally not agree with said non-truth.

      1 reply →

    • nicce  8 months ago

      People benefit from robbery too. Words have still a meaning and we should at least try to word it in a way which sounds legal.

immibis  8 months ago

Everyone and their dog knows that torrents are exclusively used for piracy.

It's not true, of course, but everyone and their dog still knows it.

skwirl  8 months ago

Surely we all know that when we post or upvote comments like this that we are being incredibly disingenuous.

bsimpson  8 months ago

Tim Sweeney's backbone is in whatever shape makes him the most money. He's an opportunist (and probably a narcissist), not a freedom fighter.

  • cmcaleer  8 months ago

    Here's a question on expected value. Do you think Epic makes more money if:

       (a) they agree to Apple's demands and have Fortnite on the App Store during its peak of popularity for years and eat the junk fees on mtx or 

   (b) they fight an extremely costly lawsuit, which they have no guarantee of winning, for years, during which time Fortnite could leave the cultural zeitgeist (which it to some extent has) and maybe eventually one day get closer to 95% of mtx money?

    If you think it's not (a), I would love to know why. Sweeney seems not that motivated by money, he's already filthy rich.

    • bsimpson  8 months ago

      Fair question.

      I think he wants to be Steam. He wants to grow to be a foundational pillar of the market. He is to a certain degree with Unreal Engine, but that's split with Unity. He wants Epic to be the top player. Might be ego/power more than cash, but it's still coming from a place of greed.

      So maybe he wants to use mobile as the lever to make the Epic Store relevant, and suing the first party markets is the path to do that.

      Or maybe he's just used to being the richest guy in the room and doesn't like to be pushed around.

      Either way, I think it's misplaced to herald him as a folk hero. I don't think he actually cares about individual freedom. He cares about whatever is good for Tim/Epic.

      Epic's got its own anticompetitive bullshit. They don't let you play their games on Linux. They make excuses about Linux being a haven of cheaters, but really, they're just trying to add friction to keep people from moving to SteamOS.

      1 reply →

  • benoau  8 months ago

    Banning apps like Kindle and Patreon from linking to their own payments should never have happened. Especially Patreon - Apple wrote a rule commandeering 30% of a then-five-year old app's revenue and coerced them into using IAP to get it, nobody should be supportive of this whatever Sweeney's shortcomings or motivations.