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If purchasing isn’t owning, then piracy isn’t stealing (fosstodon.org)

submitted 1 year ago by maegul@lemmy.ml to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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I am ashamed that I hadn’t reasoned this through given all the rubbish digital services have pulled with “purchases” being lies.

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[-] guitarsarereal@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Well it's an interesting question. From Hulu's TOS:

a. License. Within the United States and subject to the terms and conditions in this Agreement, we grant you a limited, personal use, non-transferable, non-assignable, revocable, non-exclusive and non-sublicensable right to do the following:

Install and make non-commercial, personal use of the Services; and stream or temporarily download copyrighted materials, including but not limited to movies, television shows, other entertainment or informational programming, trailers, bonus materials, images, and artwork (collectively, the “Content”) that are available to you from the Services.

This is a license agreement and not an agreement for sale or assignment of any rights in the Content or the Services. The purchase of a license to stream or temporarily download any Content does not create an ownership interest in such Content.

While I'm not a lawyer, I'm gonna guess the lines about a revocable license are intended to cover this. Sites like Hulu rotate their content out, which I'm gonna guess means your license to view their content only extends to what's in their library at that time. Under fair use, you might be able to argue that you can create a backup copy for your own viewing -- it does say "temporarily download," but doesn't say you have to download it from them -- but legally you'd probably be obligated to delete your copy once Hulu gets rid of it regardless.

Also, the TOS does specify that circumventing their copy protection is a TOS violation. While the DMCA grants certain exceptions to the copy-protection rule for fair use, I don't think it requires Hulu to continue to serve you content or not revoke your license if you break their TOS. Kinda reminds me of Red Hat's use of TOS to enforce terms that go above and beyond the GPL. They can't exactly stop you 100%, but they can refuse to do business with you, which makes it a lot harder.

[-] Skates@feddit.nl 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Not to disparage your reply, because it's well thought out and written, but doesn't it seem to you we're hiding behind legalese?

I want to buy a turkey. I have money. I will visit a farm, pay for the turkey (if the price is agreeable to both parties) and I now own that turkey. I will then do whatever the fuck I want with that turkdy, from raising it as my child, to cooking it for thanksgiving, to cloning it if I have the technology. Sure, I might not be able to return it in some cases. But that's a living fucking thing, and nobody can tell me how to use it.

Now - I want to buy a movie. I have money. I will go to the cinema, but it's not playing anymore. I will look for it on TV, but it's only on one channel, only while I'm at work. I will look for it on the internet and it's available on one website, where I need to make an account and provide quite a lot of information about me. So I make the account and click through their shitty prompts, pay for the movie and now I can only do one thing: stream it?

Excuse you? Who the fuck are you to tell me how I can enjoy my media? What if I want to make a vynil record and listen to it? What if I want to watch it on my old-timey projector? What if I want to burn a frame of the movie onto my morning toast every day for 2000 years? What if I want to put it in a small baggy tied to my balls while I'm fucking the mom of some movie exec, am I supposed to put the entire laptop in the baggy? How the fuck dare you make that distinction for me? Oh, because your site isn't granting me the right to buy a movie, but to buy a license to watch that movie in whichever conditions you decide? Great - here's the thing: I have my own license, which says whenever I pay for something, I use it however the fuck I want, and if you attempt to exert any control over my property or how it is used I will literally stab you and bury you in the woods, because I don't take kindly to corporate fucks who attempt to instruct me how to use the things I've bought. Fuck you, you should've read my license when you took my money.

There is no "license" here, my dude. I don't pay for licenses, regardless of what the website wants to charge for. I pay for a product, or a a service. Let's not hide behind legalese and let's just acknowledge that these are scummy practices to ensure the wealth of corporations at the expense of the rights of consumers. And until these types of shady "licenses" to temporarily view THEIR PROPERTY are smacked into the fucking ground by consumer-friendly laws, piracy is the only way to have justice in a system stacked against you.