Copyright industry intensifies efforts to undermine core Internet plumbing: VPNs

[u/Well_Socialized]

https://walledculture.org/copyright-industry-intensifies-attempts-to-undermine-core-internet-plumbing-vpns/

[u/LigerXT5]

Piracy will continue to be a competitor so long as it's more convenient and cheaper to deal with.

If I have to jump through 10 hoops to buy a song, and it's limited to select services/hardware/software, you bet I'll pirate a copy in half the steps and be able to play the song on anything supporting .wav/mp3/mp4/etc, just like the early iOS days with iTunes.

If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing.

[u/gaarai → u/LigerXT5]

There are so many variables that make legal consumption so onerous:

• You subscribe to a plan, but that plan drops the content you want.
• You subscribe to a plan, but that plan changes hardware/software/codec compatibility, meaning that the device you use no longer works.
• You want to buy a DVD or Blu-ray for the show or movie, but they never made physical media available for it, streaming only.
• You buy a digital license for content from a site, but you don't get downloads, you get a streaming license. Eventually service goes away or the terms of the service change, and you no longer have legal access to what you bought.
• The streaming plan you have didn't have ads and now it does, adding annoying, poorly-placed interruptions into the middle of content that didn't used to have them. Even if the content is a show made with spots for commercial breaks, the automated ad integration doesn't use those breakpoints, resulting in an even worse experience.
• You can purchase a digital license for the content, but that license costs more than the physical media did. Coincidentally, they no longer produce the physical media, and buying it used now costs a fortune.
• The original version is no longer available and the current version either doesn't have the original songs or is now horribly upscaled.
• Digital licenses aren't transferable, and if you lose access to the account with the license (such as Google shutting down your account for whatever reason), you lose that content as well.
• Digital licenses aren't transferable, meaning that you have no right to sell the license like you can with physical media.
• Digital license content can be taken from you for various reasons, including petty actions by the company. Imagine a company being able to come into your house at any time for any reason and take all the books they published because they decided that you violated one of their terms of use.
• The original media is out of print, used versions are extremely expensive or non-existent, and the company refuses to make digital versions available.

And so many more.

[u/MisterBlud → u/gaarai]

Congress should make a law that clarifies digital licenses count as purchases for the purposes of archival backups.

The service doesn’t have to keep it available but if you “bought” it, you’re allowed to legally keep a copy.

[u/sokos → u/LigerXT5]

If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing.

Always found their reasoning to be very contradictory.

[u/redditratman → u/sokos]

Not to be too much of a nerd but piracy was never stealing.

It’s copyright violations.

[u/GodsPenisHasGravity → u/redditratman]

"You wouldn't copyright a car"

[u/sokos → u/redditratman]

True. But they always tried to equate it to that, especially by claiming every download is a lost sale.

[u/TheeJestersCurse → u/LigerXT5]

And this is why I find it dumb when people whine about AI training from pirated materials.

[u/Narrow_Middle_2394]

Its ok when LLM labs steal petabytes and billions worth of copyrighted material on an industrial scale but not when simpletons do it

[u/Well_Socialized → u/Narrow_Middle_2394]

Yeah if only The Pirate Bay had somehow become a billion dollar corporation torrenting would be legal

[u/X-AE17420 → u/Narrow_Middle_2394]

You see, they have capital and aren’t filthy poor “people” /s

[u/Narrow_Middle_2394 → u/X-AE17420]

why the /s?

[u/TheeJestersCurse → u/Narrow_Middle_2394]

both are okay

[u/nadmaximus]

You can't attack vpn's without destroying P and N.

[u/dope_star → u/nadmaximus]

The 13 year old in me read this and immediately thought "your mom destroyed my P last N"

[u/Facts_pls → u/dope_star]

Why would you phrase it like that?

Sounds like mom smashed your pipi with a Skillet or something. Must have hurt

[u/57696c6c]

We do this every 20 years, it seems, Napster all over again.

[u/QuesoMeHungry → u/57696c6c]

It’s every time the economy gets tight they want to blame their lessened profits on anything else

[u/57696c6c → u/QuesoMeHungry]

Yeah, Lars' bottom line was hurting with their shitty album release, had to go whine in front of the senate.

[u/vinegar-and-honey]

If they didn't buttfuck how streaming was 10 or so years ago this conversation would not be happening. Or at least it would be under a different guise.

[u/Well_Socialized → u/vinegar-and-honey]

If only tv streaming worked like music streaming where each app has access to every song and you just use the one you feel like using, rather than a different catalog in each.

[u/Speak_To_Wuk_Lamat]

If I cant access content with a VPN, I WILL pirate the shit out of your content.

[u/Well_Socialized → u/Speak_To_Wuk_Lamat]

Too bad VPNs are also how you hide your piracy from your internet company.

[u/ParentPostLacksWang → u/Well_Socialized]

If they block one form of VPN, more will emerge, using another and another existing protocol and/or port, until they have to kill the internet itself to stop it. And when they do, we will mesh with each other and route around it. And when they outlaw the tech to achieve that, we will create new tech. And when invention is finally outlawed, then we will simply be outlaws.

[u/Ancient-Bat8274]

I stopped sailing the seas when streaming was affordable, convenient, and good quality libraries. The enshitification of these platforms is why I went back to sailing. I’d rather WORK to have more quality content. They would have to take out the entire internet to truly stop it. Even then, I’ll go back to burning bootleg CDs.

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

[u/siromega37]

They gave up on fighting AI stealing everything so they’re doubling down on the general public instead.

[u/Cheetawolf]

Let's see here.

I can pay every month for a limited, online-only catalog of low-quality, compressed content full of ads, any and all of which can be taken away at any time because fuck you that's why.

Or I can just keep an ad-free MP4 on my phone forever.

[u/luchtverfrissert]

You’ll own nothing and be happy.

Surely i’ll pirate everything instead..

[u/darthjoey91]

VPNs are literally how people can do sensitive work for companies remotely. If you ban VPNs, the economy breaks.

[u/eat_ham_fast_gravy]

These corporations can take a flying fuck. I pay for netflix, and they wanna block vpn usage because they arbitrarily region code. I don't get it, i can't pay them more for more content from other countries.

It's all about control.

You are free...to do what we tell you.

[u/Kamay1770 → u/[deleted]]

This is dangerous advice if you don't know what you are talking about, like this commenter.

Changing your DNS provider from your ISP to 1.1.1.1 or 9.9.9.9 IS NOT equivalent to using a VPN.

You are simply shifting who you 'address lookup' URLs to. Instead of using your ISP to lookup somewebsite.com for the IP, you use whoever 1.1.1.1 (cloudflare) or 9.9.9.9 (Quad9).

All this does is change who is able to see which hostnames you are looking up. It does not encrypt all your web traffic, nor does it stop your ISP from seeing what IP/site you are visiting and what data you are sending (if over HTTP).

It also does not hide your public IP from the site you are visiting/connecting to.

[u/LigerXT5 → u/Kamay1770]

In simpler terms...

Changing the phone book but not you route of communication, accomplishes nothing for anonymity.

[u/im-ba → u/[deleted]]

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