Doing this is not only moral; it’s virtuous.

Bandcamp.

“It sounds like a compelling argument. But it actually isn’t.”

Well, I’m convinced!

When I got into Retroshare, it was all filesharing, but that was several years ago.

It’s important if they share the file, too.

Preservation is extremely relevant for streaming services, because you don’t own anything. Sure, that movie or show is there today, but the streaming service could decide to take it down tomorrow, and then it’s gone. Maybe forever. Corporations have no interest in preservation, unless it makes them money. And sometimes, oddly, not even then.

There can also be weird issues with copyrights or something like that. Take the example of old Beavis & Butt-Head episodes. MTV had to cut out the music videos, because they no longer held the rights to show them anymore. There are episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 like this. They had permission to show that movie at the time the episode was made, but they don’t hold those rights anymore, so they can’t offer that episode for streaming.

But what is it’s an NFT?

I believe that’s US law. (I’m not a lawyer, though.)

Yes, we’ve always been the bad guys. People are noticing now because the chickens have come home to roost.

I want to cancel my residency and move to Canada.

Unfortunately, you really can’t afford to ignore his words, because sometimes they do lead to actions. Hell, people ignoring his words is how he got re-elected in the first place.

Soulseek?

To be fair, I think it’s because they equate it with stealing. The propaganda works. Most people think that stealing is wrong, and media corporations have put a lot of money into convincing people that filesharing = stealing. Hell, even people who are okay with filesharing call it “piracy”, because that’s the corporate framing they were brought up with. (Just look at the name of this sub.)

Richard Stallman calls this out in this essay:

The term “piracy” is used by record companies to demonize sharing and cooperation by equating them to kidnaping, murder and theft.

I mean, yes, I enjoy saying “yarr”, and “yo-ho-ho”, and all the rest of it, but I have to admit that’s the result of a successful propaganda campaign. Before people called it “piracy”, they called it “filesharing”. And, of course, that was a problem, because everybody knows that sharing is good and should be encouraged; but piracy is evil and should be stopped.

Believe it or not, I’ve met people like this. I know a guy who was worried about showing a movie to our Meetup group.

Not because he was afraid of getting caught. He thought it might be unethical.

Can proprietary software be justified?

Verily?

Oh no! It says there might be early spoilers! Yikes!

Nothing for me to do but go download the ROM and play it early, then. I have no choice.

So, the ROM leaking early has…what to do with emulators?

At this point, I think it’s gone from “ethically okay” to “mandatory”.

It’s like downloading Metallica’s newest album. Sure, I might never listen to it, but it’s the principle.

Hey, instead of picking on that little kid, why don’t you go harass that huge bodybuilder guy with all the knives attached to his belt?