You will own everything, and you will be happy.
You cannot "steal" a video game or an online movie. You can receive a copy of it by some means, but unless the person who receives the product for free has put said product into a state in which it can no longer be distributed from the platform in which it originated from, it is not stealing. Such a claim appeals to artificial commodity, and the corporations will do whatever they can to sow guilt into the masses.
You know what is stealing? Making your game unavailable because you no longer want to keep its servers running, even when people have paid for it. But the law is much more forgiving when a corporation does it.
Going back to piracy – if it isn’t stealing, is it still legal? No.
But legality and morality are two different things.
Do what you want...
I'd like to point you to this article in which Valve CEO Gabe Newell talks about pirating, and where most corporations get it wrong.
“One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue,” explained Newell. “The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting anti-piracy technology to work. It’s by giving those people a service that’s better than what they’re receiving from the pirates.”
“The point was, the people who are telling you that Russians pirate everything are the people who wait six months to localize their product into Russia… So that, as far as we’re concerned, is asked and answered. It doesn’t take much in terms of providing a better service to make pirates a non-issue.”
In the new online gaming space where, like a child locking themselves in their room because they didn’t get what they want, greedy corporations make their own launcher because they can’t stand the idea of revenue being shared elsewhere... consequently the average PC gamer now needs at least nine different launchers on their system in order to game. That’s nine different accounts (emails, phone numbers, passwords, and billing info) you’re also going to have to micro-manage.
At what point do you look at the state of things, and what your consumers are having to deal with, and go “yeah, they probably should pirate my products for their own sanity”? If the corporations had the ability to self-reflect, then they’d probably do just that. Unfortunately, though, money corrupts their minds.
...'Cause a pirate is free....
Because their hearts are hardened, and because their narcissism is inflated, they can only look out for themselves and their income. The consumers are left to suffer with inconvenience.
Bloatware/adware launchers, DRMs, and other means to ensure the product they paid money for is authentic.
Denuvo, an anti-piracy mainframe that sacrifices game performance.
Single player games which require an internet connection to ensure your copy is legitimate.
Outside of gaming? iLok, a piss-baby’s attempt at anti-piracy, has you plugging in a USB anytime you want to ensure some software is legitimate.
Adobe now wants ownership of your projects. Don't like it? Too bad, either agree or cancel your subscription (and you actually have to pay to do that too!).
Good luck finding major game or program nowadays that installs their stuff locally in a folder without the invasive authenticators being hidden in the most obscure directories on your PC that cause issues when swapping from drive to drive.
Even when cloning my whole OS and moving it to a new disk, where every file is supposed to be the same, many digital audio workstation plug-ins I have (Looking at you, Native Instruments, Applied Acoustic Systems, IK Multimedia, and XLN Audio) required a reinstall because their programs were SO pervasively and intrusively dug into my system, that the mere sight of a different disk caused them to freak out and refuse to work.
...You are a pirate
Unsurprisingly, some do not have the patience to deal with this nonsense… and it isn’t a TikTok-induced ADHD thing either. The corporations, in the name of stopping “piracy”, want their paying consumers to present a dozen passports, authenticators, receipts, proof of purchases, etc.
When the alternative (piracy) cuts out all the fat, as well as the monetary reward to the imbeciles that practice such shoddy practices… find me the downside to piracy if you can. It is justified – required, even – when the corporation cares more about the legitimacy of the consumer’s transaction then the actual consumer.
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