And we don't want to live with people who can engage in the intellectual dishonesty that a site dedicated and known for primarily listing numbers pointing to copies of somebody else's work, that they worked hard to create, is harmless.
Yes, there are rich people who make money off of TV shows, movies, videogames, etc. But there are also regular hardworking people who depend on it for their living, and saying TPB is just exercising free speech really skips over the issue.
> Yes, there are rich people who make money off of TV shows, movies, videogames, etc. But there are also regular hardworking people who depend on it for their living, and saying TPB is just exercising free speech really skips over the issue.
Does it though? TPB themselves are not doing any sort of piracy, nor are they harming anyone. That exercise is left entirely up to the users.
The only thing they do is distribute numbers, exactly like I just did. Your choice what you do with that. If you choose to use that number to harm someone, that's up to you, not me. I'm not at fault for giving you a number.
Perhaps those users look at it from another perspective: maybe people shouldn't be making money like that. We live in a post-scarcity world with digital resources, we have no need for such people anymore. We've shown time and time again that even without enforcement, some will thrive and profit greatly, some will operate for free, and others will fall. Maybe it's time to just let it happen and give up on the use of coercive force to create a false market.
I can't say whether it's right or wrong, I don't think there's a correct answer there, but you have to understand that different people view these issues entirely differently.
The world isn't theoretical. Context matters, intent matters. It's called the PIRATE bay for fucks sake. Sure, there is plenty of regular sharing on TPB. But the majority of it is pirated content that they are making a hell of a lot easier for people to access.
This thread is really exposing to me the variety of views on the topic. I get your argument, but it's like you're deliberately ignoring the reality of how TPB is used.
Which people are you talking about that we have no need for? The people who make the content? You don't feel we have a need for them? I love cutting out middle men as much as anyone, but eventually somebody has to make the product. I've seen people argue that authors shouldn't be paid for their work, they should do it as a side project of passion and be happy to see somebody reading a copy of their work. I'd much rather do my art all day than have to do it as a side project while I work at something else to pay the bills.
And as an aside, we may live in a post-scarcity world but it sure as hell isn't distributed.
> This thread is really exposing to me the variety of views on the topic. I get your argument, but it's like you're deliberately ignoring the reality of how TPB is used.
I'm simply saying TPB cannot be held directly responsible for how their users behave. Same as any website operator really. Not "deliberately ignoring" anything. TPB doesn't pirate. TPB helps pirates by offering names and comments on hashes. I don't see why that should be illegal at all.
Their name and marketing is simply the best marketing for their platform to get the most ad views. Nothing wrong with that.
> Which people are you talking about that we have no need for? The people who make the content? You don't feel we have a need for them? I love cutting out middle men as much as anyone, but eventually somebody has to make the product.
Simply "working hard" alone should not be rewarded. And as we've seen time and time again, plenty of people are willing to make a product for free, with or without ad revenue or to find alternative ways to profit. Just because 1 business model fails doesn't mean everybody loses out. Just some people. I'm saying the people who _rely_ upon the failing business model should in fact lose rather than being encouraged by archaic laws.
Yes, there are rich people who make money off of TV shows, movies, videogames, etc. But there are also regular hardworking people who depend on it for their living, and saying TPB is just exercising free speech really skips over the issue.