take a bigger bite out of overall corporate profits.
Don’t co-adopt Corporate gaslighting. They can call it “opportunity cost”, “expected return” or other bullshit. But it’s all castles in the air dreamed up by profiteers.
It’s never their money to begin with. It only becomes so because they want everyone to believe that making a copy of software deprives others from using it like physical goods.
The truth is that if somebody was going to pirate software, then they were never going to buy it in the first place and it’s greedy and mentally ill to think otherwise.
Sorry to say, you’ve mistakenly made one hell of a generalisation on that last sentence. Other than that one stinky turd, the rest is spot-on.
The truth is that if somebody was going to pirate software, then they were never going to buy it in the first place and it’s greedy and mentally ill to think otherwise…
I’ve been on the piracy scene since 2001 and was a moderator for one of the largest dreamcast piracy forums once upon a time. The core members of that forum are still together on Discord and we all buy things wherever possible. Gabe Newell is correct in that piracy is a service problem.
Steam cut my games piracy down to zero for the longest time (501 games, 414 DLC) because it was more convenient and had frequent sales. Other companies that decided to pull away from Steam and conspire with publishers regarding timed exclusives on a platform that doesn’t want me as a customer (Epic). As a result, anything that is an Epic exclusive is pirated indiscriminately and seeded for several weeks. I don’t even play any of them. Download, seed for a week, delete, rinse and repeat on the next exclusive. The same goes for anything with Denuvo DRM.
GOG has DRM free games, there’s a site where they are all available for download, and I’ve discovered quite a few gems that way. Those gems got purchased on Steam because GOG also doesn’t want me as a customer, even though I had decent library and bought several games at launch on there. I’m refusing to use a third party launcher to install games from there because once again, its a service problem.
Netflix cut my video piracy to zero between 2011 and 2020. When I moved across the world, I brought only my clothes, laptop, and storage drives. Everything I wanted to watch was available on Netflix or YouTube. Once Netflix started losing shows like Futurama, Parks & Rec, and even Sons of Anarchy, I went straight back to piracy and haven’t looked back. Netflix only continued to get my money because my partner insisted on doing things legally. By the time she had enough in October 2023, we were paying for Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Ziggo, YouTube, Curiosity Stream, and HBO. At the moment, only Curiosity remains.
Adding up the 3 “services” we consume content from the most (not including the ones we watch one show here and there on) added up to €497 per year. My piracy costs €472 per year not including electricity, which is used anyway since the server also hosts a boat load of microservices like NextCloud which replaces yet another subscription storage. It’s costing me €72 to rent a seedbox, and €400 at the upper-end for a large NAS drive one time per year.
It’s a service problem and I don’t think those who refuse to contribute to the broken service problem are mentally ill. The “managers” in charge are.
I know … people … who’ve been casually torrenting for 25 years and haven’t had a virus since the 90’s. They don’t do games or other “cracks” as they’re the easiest way to get a virus because you have to run an executable. You don’t run that risk with media files. The important thing is setting your OS to always show the file extension so you don’t click on any that are executable. As long as you click the .mp4 / .mkv you’ll be fine.
All you have to do is set up a vpn that allows P2P traffic and enable a killswitch, set up qbittorrent, go to one of the current reputable resources, mentioned all over the place, and click the magnet link. Better yet go the arr route and it’s mostly hands off after it’s set up.
What I was trying to say was that; regardless of any explanation for why piracy happens, it is not the same as stealing physical goods. Corporate executives and MPAA types are mentally sick (they can’t see past money) and go to the extent of gaslighting consumers into accepting their definitions because if they control the narrative then they can do anything and spin it as normal or only solution.
It’s a service problem and I don’t think those who refuse to contribute to the broken service problem are mentally ill. The “managers” in charge are.
I am not blaming normal people. I am calling industry and rich oligarhs mentally ill. Because is it not sick to want to do what they are doing?
I am merely peeved by how normalized “piracy is theft” has become, when in today’s world corporates plunder the earth, commit wage theft, suppress collective bargaining, and don’t want to pay taxes. It’s so normalized that even piracy advocates have incorporated it into their vocabulary.
It seems that I misunderstood your original comment. You’re right in that piracy isnt the same as stealing physical goods.
My original comment was a jab at the corpos and using their terminology to highlight how utterly absurd their line of thinking is. I should have worded it better and used “imaginary profits” instead.
Just FYI but you can download all your GoG games through the webpage as standalone installers, only thing you’re gonna be missing out on without the GoG galaxy software is the automatic updates/cloud saves (which have been broken anyway with the latest migration they’ve been up to for the last several weeks)
I am aware of that. I could also just use Lutris since I use it to install the games themselves anyway. My point is, if the company that wants my money goes out of their way to not produce a Linux build of their launcher in the age of Electron, I’m going to get it elsewhere and launch it as a non-Steam game. Its the same number of steps. Still a service problem.
I dunno, I’m fine with adopting it, among other language like getting their necks under a guillotine if they don’t like it. If I voice that I want their “corporate profits” to collapse, that’s rather alarming to them when people state that their goal is to deprive them of wealth in whatever terms they’ll understand.
I agree with you, all castles in the air dreamed up. That’s really well said.
Here is the problem as I see it and I don’t know a way around it:
*There are some kids who cannot get vaccinated for legitimate reasons such as allergies or being immunocompromised.
*There are highly unethical anti-vax doctors willing to give anti-vax parents fake exemptions based on those legitimate reasons that their kids don’t actually have.
A brief search indicates that only 1-2% of children are unable to receive traditional vaccinations due to allergies or immunocompromised conditions.
I’m willing to bet that the unethical doctors writing exemptions likely have an unbalanced amount of child-vaccination exemptions to administered child-vaccinations ratio. Such discrepancies should be thoroughly investigated.
In other words, if more than 2 out of every 100 children, a particular doctor consults with, are given vaccination exemptions, then something is suspicious.
That might work. In a sane state. Unfortunately, Florida would likely just let doctors get away with it if some such law astoundingly got passed. Their surgeon general is an anti-vaxer.
Yeah. It’s truly bat-shit crazy watching what’s going on. What a miracle vaccinations are, a true testament to mankind’s prowess. Then Florida does this (Alabama - lookin’ at you too, bruh).
Criminally dubious, indeed. But here we are, where laws in this and many other regressive states are breaking and bending in ways that befuddle the mind - the educated mind at least.
That doesn’t work. Doctors specialize in specific things. There are probably doctors who legitimately have 100% vaccine exempt patients for medical reasons.
The real problem is that doctors can’t be “fired”. Stop asking the government to do something when it’s really the AMA licensing board that is the problem.
It’s a private organization that is run by doctors. Obviously doctors are not going to prioritize making it easier to take away someone’s license. Demand the AMA do something about “killer doctors” or something. If their brand is associated with sickness, then they might take action.
So the charges, crimes, evidence, and jury don’t matter. It’s all cleared because bOtH sIdEs nonsense. Hey judge I have an idea, if other people commit crimes then prosecute them. I wonder if he’s close to realizing why you don’t see much on the ‘other side’ (the why is that there is no violent far left committing crimes. Or if you want to be pedantic, it’s incredibly, vastly minuscule compared to the violent far right.)
I’m starting to understand better and better how countries fall into strongmen and fascism. It’s unreal.
“Prosecuting only members of the far right and ignoring members of the far left leads to the troubling conclusion that the government believes it is permissible to physically assault and injure Trump supporters to silence speech,” Carney wrote in his order.
Did he just say the far right and Trump supporters are one and the same? Lolol.
I’m not necessarily saying there should be a violent far left committing crimes. . . but the right keep trying to both-sides their terrorism shit, that’s how you get a self-fulfilling prophecy.
That’s what being a Protestant’s all about. That’s why it’s the church for me. That’s why it’s the church for anyone who respects the individual and the individual’s right to decide for him or herself. When Martin Luther nailed his protest up to the church door in fifteen- seventeen, he may not have realised the full significance of what he was doing, but four hundred years later, thanks to him, my dear, I can wear whatever I want on my John Thomas,… [sniff] …and, Protestantism doesn’t stop at the simple condom! Oh, no! I can wear French Ticklers if I want
It sounds like they believed the shooter was their own engine so I’m going to assume all the local wildlife was fine. They did however eliminate the evil deceptagon.
The cop was firing at the back of the car. His partner was interviewing the girlfriend of the suspect when she heard the shout of shots fired. She asked from where and the cop said from the car, she opened fire at the front of the car.
It’s easy to shit on cops but I hope the guy is okay. It kinda sounded like he resigned after self-realizing how this is not an okay situation. He’s probably been in a handful of fucked up situations to be triggered like that tbh.
You don’t empty a whole clip like a schizo after hearing one shot lol. I think the protocol would have been to call back up or “I heard shots fired on main Street”
You’re right, it’s a bat shit insane response, but cops in the U.S. are trained to be afraid and react without thinking on a hair trigger. His reaction is unfortunately way too normalized.
Real talk - How will not paying convince conservatives to be for student debt forgiveness? They’re the ones blocking loan forgiveness, and this is a demographic of people that does lean toward them, so why would they listen?
IMHO, showing up to vote is what would actually put the fear of god into these politicians. Not paying a loan will totally fuck up your ability to rent, get a credit card, get reasonable car insurance, and even get a job. Bad credit is no joke.
It won’t, but I hope most of these people realize the only way it’ll change is consistently going to vote and keeping their family updated on what to vote on.
I checked and there is one change. It’s easier to discharge through bankruptcy (although not simple by any means) under the current administration although without congressional change it’s still an uphill battle there too.
I am applauding the act of resistence, I don’t think the fact that garnishing wages is a consequence should dissuade those from trying to take a part in resisting. It doesn’t make the debt culture we saddle our children with, for a chance at survival, any less immoral. Any resistence in such a culture is therefore a moral obligation.
Don’t match the real world? Just because you have been lucky to avoid that stuff doesn’t mean that a LOT of us haven’t experienced that stuff.
Credit checks are common in housing markets with limited supply, all the largest auto insurance companies in the US now do credit checks, and jobs in industries like finance and security often add a credit check during your pre-hire background check.
And god forbid you ever need some serious financial products like another loan. That is off the table.
It depends on your age and where you live. You may have gotten into housing, an insurance policy, or your gig before this trend took off.
It’s now a big enough problem that a handful of states have started to draft and pass legislation that bans credit checks for insurance, housing, and employment. So, if you’re in a place like CA or MA, you might not notice that this is fair game in most of America.
That said, a lot of this fuckery is still super common and fair game in most of the US.
Do not live in CA or MA or a state that has rules like that. In fact 11 years ago a landlord did ask me and I said no. She backed down when I said I wasn’t going to bend on the issue. Of all the places in my life this was the only one that asked.
Yeah, there aren’t a lot of Americans over 35 that don’t realize how hard a bad credit score can fuck you. There’s no shortage of very real horror stories around this stuff.
Tell me you’re assisting with corruption without telling me you’re assisting with corruption.
There is absolutely no reason to charge half as cash unless you want physical money to conveniently forget to report.
Why do you think so many slightly shady businesses offer cash discounts? If your answer is “only card fees” then you may want to double check that last apple gift card you sent to grandma for her IRS bill actually made it to her.
I don’t care if it’s John down the street or a major world government. Someone somewhere saw this and thought “ooh, more money we can accidentally misreport”
Sure is a shame that the 17.5k never made it to it’s destination. That 15k could have come in handy. You never know when 10k could be useful for stopping terrorists that bring watches into the country. Hard to believe that 5k could be useful, but that 2k is going to be stretched as far as it can go.
First of, I couldn’t find anything to corroborate the experience existence of such a rule.
The article might not be entirely accurate.
But even if it were true, you think customs officials just take your money without giving you a receipt?
And how would underreporting even work if the amount is exactly specified?
“Yes, we fined him for 20k, he paid 10k by card and here are the other 8k in cash.”
In the US, the way it works is that the cash part never makes it onto the report, though more commonly this happens when the police do a “no knock raid” on “the wrong house” and then empty the family safe. The contents of the safe simply never get reported as evidence or mysteriously disappear from the evidence room without being reported as missing, like a fairly decent portion of the drugs taken as evidence every year does.
In this hypothetical scenario, if he paid by card you’d already have evidence that he was fined and what 50% of the amount was.
So the customs guys would have to bring in the same amount in cash. How would the cash part not make it into the report if there were a rule that there must be a cash part?
And once that is deposited in the bank, nobody can just walk in and make some of it disappear.
Yeah, after making that comment I realized the whole “customs gives you a receipt” thing, whereas the scenario I was talking about basically comes down to your word vs theirs, and what they write in their report. It’s a scenario with a lot less accountability than customs has.
Or, even better, the beginning of Isreal's transformation into a country where people see through the bullshit of the far-right and elect decent leaders, leaving Netanyahu to rot in prison.
A lot of Israelis are blaming Netanyahu for the war, the Supreme Court of Israel struck down his constitutional reform, and thanks to him Israel can no longer take the support of their oldest allies completely for granted. The relationship between the US and Israel was already at an all-time low before all this thanks to Netanyahu being a piece of shit.
Of course, there's also the flip side of the coin: Netanyahu has always had a fear based platform, and the political climate lends itself well to that at the moment. There's always a rally behind the flag effect, and elections are still far away. So even if he loses the next election in a landslide that might be too late. Frankly it has been too late for many years already.
So all in all I agree in not being incredibly optimistic.
You’re right. Given demographic changes in the US, I do think it’s only a matter of time before most Americans consider Israel to be an albatross around their necks.
Yes bill, that was the fucking point everyone was making to you while your republican colleagues wrote and ratified that poorly worded and ill-conceived piece of bullshit legislation. I don’t remember what it was exactly but I do remember laughing at how obviously it would come back and bite yall in the ass and you dumbfucks, who lack the insight necessary to spot your own hypocrisy, had no idea.
Republicans are always surprised when language cuts both ways. Which is every time. Not really capable of learning; ergo, not fit to govern.
Could a president order Seal Team Six to assassinate unsympathetic judges, either of an appeals court or the Supreme Court itself, since that’s an “official act?” Because that might be something worth considering.
As a gun owner, yea I fucking agree. Get a co cenceal carry and carry that shit in and out of the car. Di not leave and and do not leave it visible. Responsible gun owners don’t have any of these issues. But look at the area the kids were in and the illegal shit they were already doing, that shit is being overlook by almost everyone here just cause a gun was involved. Ffs.
Well legally they don’t have access to firearms. They also shouldn’t have access to Heroin, and legally they don’t, but it killed 3 of my friends before we even graduated, so in practice…
It costs too much to be out and be social. There is no place for people to congregate that doesn’t require you to spend money. Even churches have $ expectations. In most places the local public library is the last free third space. I know everyone seems to love remote work, but for me remote work forced the place of my biggest stress to be in my house and I hate it. I’ve been mostly remote for the last 13 years and I’ve realized that I need an onsite work place so I can maintain my home as my place of relaxation and escape.
I know it's tough when you can't separate work and home. I don't know what your setup is, but I only use the work laptop and not the monitor and dock they sent so I don't have to give permanent space to work stuff. When work is done the laptop closes and gets put in the work backpack next to my desk.
Likewise, I commute to my home work by going on a 15 minute walk around the neighborhood before and after so I get some time separation. Giving myself time after work especially to mentally come home was important.
I understand. I was a software developer and engineer for twenty years, complete with quad display and everything. I, painfully, switched to laptop only even before COVID so that I could be productive while traveling. But I kept a dock on my office. When I needed more resources than my laptop had, I started using servers in AWS. I understand wanting the benefit of the extra displays, but I decided that my personal boundary was not giving up the space in my home. So when COVID hit I permanently went to single monitor.
I know not everyone can or wants to do that. But if you are struggling with work home separation with remote work, I suggest trying it on case it helps. Your happiness is worth the x% efficiency hit, unless that is the margin that will get you fired.
Same. Dedicated space and being very strict a about actually wearing presentable clothes (at least jeans and tshirts) and shoes. I don’t let myself wear sweatpants or any other “relaxing” outfit. When I’m done with work, shoes and jeans come off. Confy clothes on. It really helps me delininate work mode or home mode.
Not just the cost, but the fact that so many people are working 50+ hours a week just to survive and simply don't have the time or energy. When you've gotta pick up a second job on the weekend to make rent, you're probably not going to have any energy to go out.
<span style="color:#323232;"> Not everyone is so lucky as to have friends to visit - there used to be places where one could socialize without spending money, and without having to entertain a vice like the bar or casino.
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> There’s really no options for folks to go and just meet similar minded people, so new friends are just harder and harder to find as we get older.
</span>
Idk how I made that font happen but I’m leaving it there.
What places are you talking about? I can’t think of anything that would’ve existed that doesn’t now.
It’s certainly true that more people are spending time at home with Netflix or video games that might have chosen a book and/or a more social space though.
“They shouted ‘nr’ and ‘ft’ at me to make their point. However, I served in Iraq. I never back down. Ever.”
I don’t understand this take. Because he served in the military, he won’t stop being allies with people even when they attack him and call him hateful slurs?
I don’t think I’ve ever heard the “I served in Iraq, so I’m a doormat” argument before…
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