• peanuts4life@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    5 hours ago

    “You can’t steal a digital game” is borderline sovereign citizen talk. Artists operate within the structure of society. Just because the medium in which they deploy their art is digital and most distribution platforms feasible have licenses with unsavory terms, theft is not automatically justified.

    That sort of logic could extend to the idea that it’s okay to squat in a particular ocupied house because the owner doesn’t own it, a bank does, and the money is imaginary, and the bank’s policies are unfair. There is something valid and authentic to the sentiment, but practically speaking, you’re still just being an asshole.

    That is to say, extenuating circumstances may modify that. If you can’t afford a game, or if you really hate the developers, more people may agree with you. If you would freeze to death outside of the home, or, if the home’s current occupants occupy it unfairly, then perhaps people would be more empathetic.

    But to declare that the wholesale theft of digital goods as fine just because you don’t like the platform is anarchy without any of the nuance of anarchy.