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Comment by tshaddox | Hacker News Reader

Again, pirating doesn’t stop you or anyone else from sending money to the copyright holder via whatever means the copyright holder prefers.

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Most copyright holders prefer you sending money for them in the way they ask you to, which is by purchasing it in the way they are offering it. And it's completely hilarious to suggest that most pirates are somehow Venmoing the artists directly. 99% of content has no way to actually do that.

That’s a nice way of saying they’re full of shit. They want stuff for free, and that’s the whole of it.

It’s reasonable to not want to do that, even if it’s not the most severe kind of unethical or illegal act.

Not gp, I want to pay the creators. I also want to own what I pay them for. When I have this option (bandcamp, physical media etc.) I'm going for it without even thinking. It's not about the money. It was about the money when I was 13. Now it's simply about owning my stuff. Renting is not for me. If I don't have any other alternative than pirate, what should I do?

Sharing is caring. If I can share my money with creators I go for it every single time, especially when these creators are simply making my life better with their art.

It's more complex than "want stuff for free". Usually I hate free stuff as they cost in time or worse.

I didn’t suggest anything about the link between pirating media and buying media, and that’s not relevant to my point. The point is, if you want to support a creator financially, then by all means do so. And if you want a DRM-free copy of a work, and piracy is the only way to get that, then by all means do so. Neither precludes the other.

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