Ask HN: Do You Pirate Software?

5 points

4 years ago

I was saddened to see that in the last week TorrentFreak has reported both the (relatively minor) conviction of five private tracker owners in Denmark [1] at roughly the same time as the US authorities blocked z-library [2] and Google's newfound rule as censor becomes more apparent in France [3].

I've always pirated software. I've always paid for software as well -- sometimes more than two decades after I first came to pirate it, because that was when I was in a position to pay for it -- but the fact is that the marginal cost of making more software is very close to zero and I prefer to directly support its makers if I can rather than dealing with app stores or similar. I should stress that I really do buy software and other media items. I just prefer to give the cash to the "right" organization for the "right" price.

Am I alone? I worry that the "scene" is dying down a bit and that what used to be a more vibrant community has become quite literally a bit of a target for the authorities. Stories like this make me worry about my (south american) seedboxes, for example.

[1] https://torrentfreak.com/movie-piracy-conviction-for-torrent-site-co-founder-five-down-two-to-go-221107/

[2] https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-authorities-seize-z-library-domain-names-221104/ or https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33460970 from 3 days ago

[3] https://torrentfreak.com/google-removes-hundreds-of-domains-to-aid-french-sports-piracy-crackdown-221102/

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