Short answer: Yes.

Huh. Based on the community this was posted in, I can assume that the answer the video comes to is “yes” and not watch it. But according to Betteridge’s law of headlines the answer is “no.” I need to argue about this without watching it but I don’t know what stance to argue about.

Ah! I’ll use the Orbit plugin to get an AI to summarize the video for me. Hm. The AI-generated summary says the video describes an anecdote about music copyright violations, talks about some ethical considerations about both music and software piracy, and then:

The speaker concludes by acknowledging the complexity of the issue and the importance of considering the perspectives of all parties involved.

So I guess the answer was “Maybe?” How am I supposed to have a pointless Internet argument about “Maybe?”

Bah. Someone attack me for using AI, at least that’s a debate I can sink my teeth into.

Can proprietary software be justified?

I bought a quite expensive piece of animation software (that cost over $1000) to use professionally. The specific term it was sold to me under was a “perpetual license.” I took this to mean “never ending”, which is the dictionary definition of the word “perpetual.” You can probably guess where this is going.

A few years later, in the middle of a professional project, it stopped working. I contacted support, and was told that they changed the way they were doing licenses so I’d have to buy a new one (at almost double the price) or eat shit. I’m paraphrasing, but that was the gist of it.

So yeah, if you’re thinking of buying a Toon Boom Harmony perpetual license, maybe save yourself a lot of money and hassle and just pirate it instead. Or tell them to get fucked and use their direct competitor. I have done both.

Honestly, I don’t have any issue using a pirated software for my own personal use.

I put the line where you use the software to make money.

Is there a need for justification?

Yes. Next stupid question.

I am not stealing. It’s there, I take it and it’s still there. Don’t know why these posts keep popping up in piracy communities. Same plague was there on reddit too. Like seriously it’s 2025.

if they put in DRM that makes the plugins 10x as big (looking at you, Acustica. I don’t even use their plugins because of that), or they make the legit version have some bullshit always-online “all-in-one” software (i.e Native Access) which in turn makes the software a bit of a faff to get working in Linux (to install legit libraries for legit kontakt, native access stores those libraries as .iso files and does some virtual drive fuckery a la DAMEONTools), then yes, if the pirated version is quicker to set up and run (and install libraries for), it is justified imo.

Also i hate theaters and streaming services. I’d rather watch whatever movie I think is cool in the comfort of my PC rather than having to drive to the theater (if it’s even on there in the first place), or paying for 9000 streaming services now and only watch like a couple of things. The wait for a good webrip (even more so for a BluRay) is worth it.

Yeah.

For example, does Microsoft deserve my money for how much of a dumping they’ve taken onto Windows since Windows 8? No, they don’t.

Because if I did give Microsoft my money, I’m REWARDING them for their half-assery.

What’s the justification for not allowing me to make a copy? Those who decry piracy call it theft, but it’s not theft since they aren’t losing anything. Not a physical product they could run out of, nor a potential sale as has been shown time and time again; people who pirate a thing generally wouldn’t have purchased the thing anyway.

Yes. Next question.

Better question: Who decides what software “piracy” even is?

why is anyone still trying to justify piracy? that’s step 2 of a conversation that even non-criminals are on step 9 in