this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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[–] akilou@sh.itjust.works 244 points 9 months ago (4 children)

We need to stop calling it "purchasing"

[–] SinningStromgald@lemmy.world 83 points 9 months ago

Long term rental or at-will ownership for US people.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 67 points 9 months ago

We need to prosecute companies (and their executives, personally) who fraudulently misrepresent it as "purchasing."

[–] Crow@lemmy.world 11 points 9 months ago

I think in legal terms it’s even called licensing.

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[–] xor@infosec.pub 183 points 9 months ago (2 children)

so they're going to refund all the people that purchased this stuff, right?

[–] Zenjal@lemmy.world 120 points 9 months ago (1 children)

An jus as one piece is kicking off not only it's final saga but more of its successful live action. The Great Pirate Era is really upon us!

[–] suspect@lemmy.ml 71 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Exactly. It’s time to take back your data and OWN YOUR SHIT people. Local Host and Mass Store.

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 18 points 9 months ago (2 children)
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[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 92 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

fuck it, pirate everything.

if they lost respect for our money, i dont see why we should respect theirs.

if buying is not owning, then piracy isn't stealing.

[–] willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com 46 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Copyright infringement was never stealing to begin with. If I steal your pencil, you are no longer in posession of it. If I copy or download your pencil, we both have a copy, and you are not deprived of your property.

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[–] mub@lemmy.ml 63 points 9 months ago (23 children)

There needs to be a registry service that allows people to show they have a license for any digital media we purchase.

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[–] Mereo@lemmy.ca 54 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (10 children)

Buying a digital copy of something you cannot download is an oxymoron. It only makes sense if you subscribe to a service.

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[–] maness300@lemmy.world 52 points 9 months ago

For smart people, piracy is a financial problem.

Why pay more for things you can get for free? It's not like the businesses you're supporting wouldn't rob you blind if they thought they could get away with it.

Even the 'creators' don't get the vast majority of the money you spend; their landlords do. When they make more money, rent goes up.

I wish this generation wasn't full of useful idiots with more money than sense.

[–] Computerchairgeneral@kbin.social 52 points 9 months ago

They're charging people higher prices and refusing to allow them to keep their digital content? They're basically just handing out the pirate hats and eye patches at this point.

[–] dRLY@lemmy.ml 51 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Very hard to convince people to buy things "legitimately" and have any trust in any of the "legit" options when they just go away so fucking easily. Stuff like anime has been a real weird example of both how horrible the corps on the Japanese side just squeeze every single fraction of a penny from stuff (fucking like two eps of a show on a modern DVD or even Blu-ray). But also feel zero reason to expand options in the first place. They were so fucking slow to get digital or streaming options. Same goes for the foreign outlets that get rights outside of J-land, but I am sure they were more likely to want to combat piracy via stuff like streaming. Funny thing about anime piracy is that it is literally the reason so many shows and movies were even seen and is the main reason so many people got into all of it. Back in the early 00's when I made friends with people that had cable internet and ready to burn as many eps as they could fit on a CD-R and later DVD-/+R.

It was just so amazing to see all these shows that weren't just completely altered by lazy US companies or ever likely to be translated. No US companies thought that Americans would ever understand or get into this weird Japanese stuff and not put money into it. But they sure started caring when torrents got going and the numbers were growing. One thing that has really pissed me off with legal digital copies of anime comes down to how it is still behind on basic shit. We have had multi-audio/subtitles on pirate copies and even on legitimate physical discs. But the legal versions of digital copies still have to be either bought in sub or dub. It is a slap in the face of fans to have to buy two different copies just to have multi-audio in Japanese and English. I thought that shit would have been left behind with VHS.

All of these companies demand our money and often charge prices that are just too high for their target audiences (especially teens that don't have jobs like so many of us have lived through). And yet they seem to do everything possible to make the options for purchase so much less usable compared to pirate versions. I would take a fansub that might be a bit off but has actual passion for community and accessibility over legit copies every single time. But I am also more than happy to pay for things if I don't keep being treated like I already stole it and should be grateful for being "allowed" to pay for it. I would love to pay for these things and know that the actual workers are able to live, and not just so overworked and not able to afford rent. But the entire media industry treats both the workers and the customers so fucking bad. They are making things worse for themselves by showing how we can't trust our purchases to even be around from one day to another. So why shouldn't we just take it and know that we will have it?

Given how lots of smaller shows and other things will never get re-prints or re-masters on modern media. It is also our jobs to preserve these things that the companies feel aren't worth the money to do so if they aren't. If I ever have kids, I would like to be able to know I can show them my favorites. Looks like I will also need to show them how to sail the digital seas and that "legit" options should always be treated as liars that steal your money AND take away what you paid for.

🏴‍☠️

[–] Rolando@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)

No US companies thought that Americans would ever understand or get into this weird Japanese stuff

I miss the subtitled "translator notes" about cultural things. US companies just change the meaning of things if there's no easy equivalent.

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[–] drislands@lemmy.world 44 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Disclaimer: this absolutely sucks and I'm baffled that they've made this move at all.

That being said, I don't think folks have noticed the very specific situation where this is the case:

Users who redeemed digital copies of a Blu-ray or DVD purchased from Funimation were granted access to the streaming service, where they could store and stream the purchased program or film.

They are very specifically removing the free digital copies that came with buying hard copies via Blu-ray or DVD. It still sucks, but no one is losing a digital product they outright bought.

[–] sushibowl@feddit.nl 24 points 9 months ago

I see where you're coming from, but I don't think that excuses anything. If you bought a hard copy with the understanding that a digital copy came with the purchase and now they're taking away the digital copy, that's still a Darth Vader "I'm altering the deal" type move.

[–] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 19 points 9 months ago

kinda feels like selling someone a burger and fries, taking away the fries and then going "no one lost a burger". the digital copy is part of what was purchased, and its been taken away from purchasers with no recourse. The digital copy was part of the deal.

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[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 40 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I literally wouldn't advocate "sailing the high seas" if companies didn't all aggressively accelerate enshittification and run toward consumer-hostile, short-term, endlessly greedy practices. And then there's this, which is on another level. Storage is crazy-cheap these days, people...

[–] trackcharlie@lemmynsfw.com 37 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

How these companies don't realize these incompetent decisions push formerly paying customers into piracy is actually beyond me.

Do every c-level employee in these companies have brain damage?

[–] KravenTheHunter@lemmy.browntown.dev 20 points 9 months ago (23 children)

Not going to lie, i think most consumers will take this lying down and that’s what Sony is betting on. The amount that actually turn to piracy is so small, and the price hike easily makes up for the customers they’d lose. I’d say most people on Lemmy know how to pirate (if not are pirating already) so it’s a bit of an echo chamber here where we assume everybody is just going to pirate so as to stop lining Sony’s pockets.

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[–] maness300@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They don't care about losing customers to piracy just like fast-food restaurants don't care about losing people to grocery stores.

They've realized it's more profitable to take further advantage of an ever-shrinking pool of customers.

If you can charge 1 customer twice the price of what you could charge 2, then you make more money because you require less overhead.

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[–] Stern@lemmy.world 36 points 9 months ago
[–] thantik@lemmy.world 30 points 9 months ago (4 children)

This is why I never bought a subscription to these services.

[–] ares35@kbin.social 15 points 9 months ago

i got suckered once on a different site that got shut down. never again.

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[–] JoeKrogan@lemmy.world 24 points 9 months ago

If anyone has this stuff it would be good to add them to i2p too.

[–] NoLifeKing@ani.social 21 points 9 months ago
[–] jacaw@sh.itjust.works 21 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What the hell is that thumbnail?

[–] radix@lemmy.world 20 points 9 months ago

Sony deleting purchased items from a person's library?

Shocker.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 18 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Any tools to rip stuff from Funimation?

Maybe this way folks will preserve it.

[–] jbk@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Apparently yt-dlp has code to work with Funimation, that might work (i can't check if it does)

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[–] SchizoDenji@lemm.ee 10 points 9 months ago

I don't think there's anything on funimation that hasn't already been ripped and posted on nyaa or private trackers.

Unless it's some really old or obscure stuff.

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[–] sulgoth@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Trust but verify folks, if you bought it and don't have a copy you fully control you're renting at best.

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[–] KuroeNekoDemon@sh.itjust.works 12 points 9 months ago

I forgot Funimation even existed tbh. I've been torrenting for ages now and I have no use for Funimation or Crunchyroll. Yo the seven seas guys!

[–] MechanicalJester@lemm.ee 11 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Class action lawsuit for contract violations

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago

There's pretty much zero percent chance there isn't a class-action waiver in the old license agreement. Maybe an arbitration clause too, but that could actually be good, since Sony would probably have to pay the arbiters win or lose, so if enough people actually pursue it it could cost them a boatload.

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[–] vox@sopuli.xyz 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

just use Aniyomi with the Yomiroll or Aniwave plugin

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