Summary of "Piracy is morally correct, actually."
The video argues that piracy can be morally justified, especially as a means of media accessibility and preservation in an era where companies frequently remove or restrict digital content. Key points include:
- Media Removal and Accessibility Issues: Streaming services often remove digital-only shows, Hollywood studios bury movies due to accounting practices, and game companies shut down servers for always-online games, making legally purchasing or accessing certain media impossible.
- The Completionist Project: A team legally spent over $20,000 to buy every game from the 3DS and Wii U eShops before their closure, highlighting the challenges of archiving digital-only titles, especially given companies like Nintendo’s aggressive copyright enforcement.
- Regional Restrictions and Censorship: Consumers face high prices or bans on content due to regional licensing or censorship (e.g., Australia banning a scene in Hotline Miami 2). Developers have even encouraged piracy when legal access is blocked.
- Piracy as Preservation: Archiving media is complicated by the physical deterioration of formats like VHS, DVDs, hard drives, and magnetic tapes. Digital preservation relies on decentralized methods like peer-to-peer file sharing, where piracy networks help maintain access to media even after originals become unavailable.
- Limitations of Archiving and Piracy: Reliance on community enthusiasm and legal risks make preservation difficult. The Internet Archive, a major nonprofit digital library, faced lawsuits from publishers after temporarily expanding access during the pandemic, resulting in many works being removed.
- Video Game Preservation Challenges: Games that require online servers (e.g., Ubisoft’s The Crew) become unplayable when servers shut down, effectively killing the game despite physical copies existing. Piracy and unofficial servers sometimes become the only way to preserve and play these games.
- Streaming and Ownership: The rise of streaming means consumers often never own physical or digital copies, and content can be removed at any time (e.g., Disney++ removing the show Willow). Without the ability to purchase or own media, piracy becomes a way to preserve and access content that would otherwise be lost.
- Moral Argument: If media is no longer available for purchase or viewing through legal means, piracy does not harm sales and serves as a form of preservation and accessibility. Every piece of media that has impacted even one person deserves preservation, and piracy can be a necessary tool in that effort.
Presenters/Contributors:
- Josh (referred to in dialogue)
- The Completionist team (mentioned)
- The video narrator/presenter (unnamed)
Category
News and Commentary
