Comment by laGrenouille
7 hours ago
I use AA and other sites to get non-DRM, PDF versions of academic books that I (mostly) already own so I can read them when I'm away from my office. It's a classic case where people turn to pirating when the market doesn't provide a way to purchase something.
Same thing with movies. Ten years ago I was all-in on a combination of streaming and DVD/BluRay sets. The market has completely collapsed for me with region locking and overly aggressive DRM. So, I've started pirating those again as well when it's not possible to get through another route.
Sure, but the difference here is the pirate is claiming it's "their data" and asking for donations.
Well, it is their data.
The word "their" is overloaded, it could mean "thing I have the legal right to", or, "thing I have in my possession right now".
The latter condition is clearly true. It's their data.
If you pretend the other definitions of possession don't exist and claim "aktually it's not theirs they don't have rights to it" then that's on you for faking an incomplete understanding of language.
Well, but if it’s the latter definition, then the AI didn’t train on their data, since the companies took possession of that data before doing a training run.
It’s only the former definition that would allow an AI model to have been trained on someone else’s data
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It's their servers sure, but if you download something under a license that doesn't grant you ownership, then it isn't yours.
You are being granted a license to use the data.
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Their data about not their work
This was the whole premise of Steam. Paraphrasing slightly because I can't remember the quote exactly, "It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be less hassle than piracy".
Even Youtube is no longer less hassle than piracy now.
Spotify is always my example. Spotify (and Apple Music I assume) is far more convenient, for a modest price, than pirating music.
It’s a shame the TV and movie people can’t seem to learn this. Most music is available on Spotify and Apple and probably other places as well.
They toyed with exclusivity for a while and I’m sure there’s still some stuff that’s exclusive to one or the other, but any time I hear a song and look it up, it’s on Spotify. Done.
Such a contrast to the stupid game of figuring out which streaming service has the show I want.
Music is very different to TV and movies. You only watch a show or a movie once, maybe twice. And it costs much more to produce it.
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Most of the music i listen to doesnt exist on Spotify and I think their business model is very predatory against artists. most artists cant pay their bills with Spotify fees, they just need to be on there to get visibility for their actual revenue streams.
I think a better example is bandcamp - it’s actually sustainable for artists and just as convenient as pirating. Plus you get to actually own what you pay for as opposed to Spotify controlling what you can / cant listen to.
> Spotify is always my example. Spotify (and Apple Music I assume) is far more convenient, for a modest price, than pirating music.
streaming services do provide some conveniences over manually managing one's own library of music. i feel like "far more" is a sales pitch argument more than something that describes reality (ignoring whether you pirate or legally acquire digital music). i recently cancelled my streaming music service subscription and returned to manually managing my music. i spend maybe one day a week shuffling music on and off of my phone according to what i want to listen to in the moment. i don't really miss being able to call up any song in the world at any point - i make a note to add it to my phone next time i sync and then move on. if i simply have to play something that's not currently on my phone, i can usually find it on bandcamp or youtube without having to pay for a stream or two.
i know it's not for everybody (and trust me, apple doesn't make it particularly easy to do compared to signing up for Apple Music), but it's really not much work to manage your own music and doing so comes with some benefits you forget about when you assume you can and should have instantaneous, frictionless access to most recorded music.
Except that Spotify is now becoming enshittified (battery and UI). When I have to think too much to attempt to use a UI, its time to find alternatives.
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IIRC the interview that quote was from came with the story - Russia was seen as a lost cause by the game industry, there was so much piracy that nobody even bothered trying to give legitimate ways to purchase, why invest in distribution when they’ll just pirate? Now of course Steam does heathy business there so that’s obviously not true. But indicates writing off piracy is a self fulfilling prophecy
Not anymore they don't.
Putin's 3 day special military operation has been going on for 4 year and 3 months, btw.
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> We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate’s service is more valuable.
https://www.escapistmagazine.com/Valves-Gabe-Newell-Says-Pir...
Aren't most piracy services free though nowadays? This quote is at least referencing pirates that sell the pirated content.
Original interview with Gabe: https://youtube.com/watch?v=EQweFurRz4g
> Even Youtube is no longer less hassle than piracy now.
YouTube premium is hassle?
I think he means that you can’t watch regular videos on YouTube unless you use a IP that is easily traceable to a subscriber or a YouTube account that requires everything short of a DNA sample to be valid.
I don't see any hassle with youtube, but I'm willing to pay.
I do see hassle on things like disney and iplayer, which put now put adverts for shows I don't want to watch in front of Rivals. It's fortunately very rare that happens (on Disney), but its getting close to what I did when Amazon brought that in, and cancelled my subscription. Just like I stopped buying DVDs when they brought adverts in.
I wouldn't have any moral problem in downloading Rivals from piratebay though, as far as I'm concerned I'm paying for it.
But sometimes though there's no option to buy the thing. I want to buy the audio version of "a stitch in time" by Andrew Robinson (Garak from Star Trek).
It's not available in my country on audible -- only the German translation.
I haven't acquired it via other means yet, I'm still on the look out for another supplier which will take my money, and if I can trust that's a legitimate supplier so at least some of my money goes to the copyright holder (and thus pays for the people that create it)
I don't have a CD player so not much use, but technically it is available for £142 from "Paper Cavalier UK". That's second hand, the creator won't make any money from me doing that.
To my mind if someone won't "shut up and take my money", it's acceptable to acquire via another means.
since youtube premium and various methods to skip ads now even Joe rogan who has 200+ million dollars does ad reads directly in video.
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