Online Piracy: What do you think?

What is the main consequence of piracy?

  • Malware infection

    Votes: 13 48.1%
  • No Support attention

    Votes: 7 25.9%
  • Harm Developers

    Votes: 17 63.0%
  • Other (specify)

    Votes: 3 11.1%

  • Total voters
    27

ZeroDay

Level 30
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Aug 17, 2013
1,905
Piracy is certainly gray area and there are many angles to it. But it can't be viewed just as piracy issue, question why is there piracy at all something must be causing people to resort to it. Sometimes it's artificial digital divide (DVD regions), unavailability of service in some areas, prices for same software (digital download) can vary very much depending on where you buy it (which country)...

Anecdotally, in my country, Croatia, there was small rally by civil society groups for preservation of national songs and dances because our local RIAA (ZAMP) charges the for performing national folk songs and dances. Law is written that way at the moment.
Is it mindbogglingly stupid? Yes, charging for hundred years old folk songs. Is it illegal to share or perform without paying for these? According to law, yes. Would I share? Hell, yeah.

Like someone said law, morality, common sense are intertwined but don't get well together sometimes.
Very well said.
 

ZeroDay

Level 30
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Aug 17, 2013
1,905
Very Interesting Question ..:)
I like all of the above posts for different reasons.
I think that it is a very complicated issue...Often Legality & Ethics do not go hand in hand.

Personally I could generalise and say that I am Anti-piracy,but I think that it depends on whether the specific system that governs the "legal" route is more ethical than the "illegal" route,or the "grey area" in between.
I am Anti "Movie Piracy" as I think that to own a legal copy of a film that costs $100+ Million to make ,for only approx £10 is a bargain.
I am Anti "OS & Software Piracy" as I do not see a need (certainly not in the UK anyway).. I have never paid for an OS or for any Security Software because they were all free anyway..
When I Gamed I always payed for the games (although I do think that they are over-priced)

IMO The Piracy that has the biggest ethical "grey area" is TV..
I consider the legal Subscription systems to be extremely unethical.. One would need to have a massive disposable income to be able to watch ones personal favourites of EVERY program available..
To have to subscribe to watch exclusive content/programming from Netflix ,Hulu ,Amazon ,Sky ,HBO...etc would cost a fortune,and it is ethically wrong in my view that only the rich could watch whatever shows they wanted..
If ALL shows of ALL services could be payed for individually then I would have a different view.
...Having said this,I do not download & distribute TV content as that crosses the morality line for me.
I agree. And, with TV shows a lot of the ones I watch are American. I pay a small fortune to SKY TV here in the UK for every channel available, and, the TV shows I watch will be shown on some of those channels but not until a year later than they show in the US. So, If I download a TV show a year earlier than it shows on the channels that I PAY for I don't consider that stealing at all. If said TV shows played here in the UK at the same time as they do in the US I'd be able to watch them on the channels I pay for. However, because I'd have to wait a YEAR to watch them here is it still stealing just because I want to watch them when they're actually released. It is a huge grey area and, I think if TV companies actually listened to people such as myself who just want to watch their favourite TV shows in their own country at the same time said TV shows are playing in America rather than having to wait for them to be played in our own countries a year later on channels we pay good money for and said money is earned by working hard then TV companies could make a huge dent in piracy. Because often it is just as simple as what I've stated above: I pay for the channels my favourite shows play on here in the UK so why should I have to wait a year longer than people in America.

So, at times piracy can be as simple as that, hard working people who pay a premium to watch the things they like on TV get frustrated about having to wait a whole year to watch something that's playing in the US right now. So TV companies could actually make more money and make a dent in piracy by just releasing shows worldwide so we, as viewers can watch them on our own TV's provided we have the relevant subscriptions.

Films are a different story and I agree, to pay 10 pounds for a film that cost millions to make is a bargain. I do however, as stated above have problems with release times of TV shows.

Software, well there's zero reason to steal software that developers have worked hard to create to put food on their families tables and pay their bills.
 

jamescv7

Level 85
Verified
Honorary Member
Mar 15, 2011
13,070
Piracy is already a criminal act and definitely a hypocrisy if you condemn but still using it.

  • You break the rules on copyright infringement, stealing the intellectual property and other related on patent based.
  • Those 3rd party programs will definitely tampered and open for virus/malware attacks without user's awareness.
  • Without permission to the developers/owners will definitely charge for criminal act.
Honestly it is not a gray area at all, however matter of ignorance.

People should respect to the creators who exert a lot of effort to produce product within decent price. Yes some maybe arrogant because of expensive price however many countries condemn piracy so why not follow the rules.

Why not try those alternative like:

A) You want music? Go to Spotify.
B) You want live streaming movies? Go to Netflix, Hulu and others.
C) You want to use a product which is free? Then go to those freemium options, or stay tune for giveaways.

----------------

Not an easy process, but that will be for good purpose.
 
O

Omnipotent

Using an Adblocker is a form of piracy as well and nearly all of us use one, think about it. It certainly is grey area.
 
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ZeroDay

Level 30
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Aug 17, 2013
1,905
I think we should also respect other peoples opinions and not condemn people for saying it's a grey area. We all have different opinions and that's fine, but please show people respect and just agree to disagree, life's too short.
 
W

Wave

Website owners make money through ads, we're blocking them and viewing the content for free.
I understand your point a bit better now, but the benefits of using an ad-blocker outweigh the negatives for sure IMO.

Advertisements are abused by many people/companies and it's been this way for a very long time (if not, from the start when they were first introduced) and therefore they are used for much more than just allowing someone to gain a little bit of money support for their free project.

For example, malvertising - if we do not have an ad-blocker then we will be vulnerable to these malicious attacks.

One idea could be disabling our ad-blockers for specific websites where the developers are trying to make money through advertisements via non-intrusive advertisements, but then if the website was weak and became compromised by an attacker (which can happen no secure a website is) and a malicious advertisement replaced the genuine one, then we would be affected).

I completely understand your point and in a way I agree and disagree with it at the same time, but I feel that an ad-blocker is a necessary protection component these days due to how advertisements are abused. (and a lot of companies use intrusive advertisements/ads as a purpose of tracking us, etc).

(above is just another view to look at the situation).

I think we should also respect other peoples opinions and not condemn people for saying it's a grey area. We all have different opinions and that's fine, but please show people respect and just agree to disagree, life's too short.
If this was aimed at me I am in no way trying to "condemn" anyone for their personal opinion, I was just trying to understand the point @Omnipotent was trying to make a bit better and suggest why Ad-blockers are more useful in terms of security altogether as opposed to the use of just revoking someones chance to support a free project...
 

ZeroDay

Level 30
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Aug 17, 2013
1,905
I understand your point a bit better now, but the benefits of using an ad-blocker outweigh the negatives for sure IMO.

Advertisements are abused by many people/companies and it's been this way for a very long time (if not, from the start when they were first introduced) and therefore they are used for much more than just allowing someone to gain a little bit of money support for their free project.

For example, malvertising - if we do not have an ad-blocker then we will be vulnerable to these malicious attacks.

One idea could be disabling our ad-blockers for specific websites where the developers are trying to make money through advertisements via non-intrusive advertisements, but then if the website was weak and became compromised by an attacker (which can happen no secure a website is) and a malicious advertisement replaced the genuine one, then we would be affected).

I completely understand your point and in a way I agree and disagree with it at the same time, but I feel that an ad-blocker is a necessary protection component these days due to how advertisements are abused. (and a lot of companies use intrusive advertisements/ads as a purpose of tracking us, etc).

(above is just another view to look at the situation).


If this was aimed at me I am in no way trying to "condemn" anyone for their personal opinion, I was just trying to understand the point @Omnipotent was trying to make a bit better and suggest why Ad-blockers are more useful in terms of security altogether as opposed to the use of just revoking someones chance to support a free project...
If it was aimed at you I would have tagged you. Why wouldn't I? I gave an opinion don't for a second think it as aimed at you or anyone else. I'd tag people if it was aimed at them. I was bought up to respect other peoples choies even if I disagree with them.
 

Exterminator

Community Manager
Verified
Staff Member
Well-known
Oct 23, 2012
12,527
Adblockers are legitimate software unless of course you use a crack,keygen,etc. to install and use the software.
So before this thread goes off the rails we should stick to the OP's question and leave the opinions on using Adblocker software to another thread.
This is a good thread on the topic of piracy not the use of adblocker software.Please stick to the topic at hand.Thanks
 
U

uncle bill

I think piracy push forward software protection industry and software protection industry push forward pirates trying to find a way out... if you see it this way then software piracy has a meaning. I don't know if i can put this right to you but once upon a time someone told me that bad guys and the good ones are the same: back then i used to know of a cracker called alor and i was not surprised when recently i got to know that he was working for hacking team (and i'm sure you know who they are).
 

JHomes

Level 7
Verified
Well-known
Jul 7, 2016
339
I'll say that I'm 99.99% against piracy.

Where's the 0.01%? I believe that sometimes there's movies (Star Wars Christmas Special) or older video games that are not widely available; and companies for whatever reason don't bother to release them. So in that sense, if that's your ONLY way to get the content, it's not the end of the world.

However, if you can go to iTunes/Amazon and buy the movie, or the <insertonlinevideogameretailer> has the game then get it through there; essentially it's otherwise available. Then you pay up.
 

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