My gf and I have had discussions about teaching morals to kids. In that vein, I asked myself, would I teach piracy to my kids? Yes, it’s technically illegal and carries inherent risks. But so does teenage sex carry the risks of teenage pregnancy, and so we have an obligation to children to teach them how to practice safe sex. So, is it necessary to teach them how to stay safe in the sea? How to install adblockers, how to detect fake download sites that give you computer aids? Show them how to use a VPN and choosing the right one (a true pirate must always choose a VPN with port forwarding capabilities, so you can still seed) I feel like this is all valuable info we all learned as pirates the hard way, and valuable information to pass on to our kids.
I definitely want my kids to know about libgen. Want a book you want to read about? Wanna learn about dinosaurs from a college level textbook for whatever reason? Just go to libgen, son!
And I attribute most of my computer literacy and education to piracy, trying to install cracks to various games, trying to make games work, and modding the fuck out of skyrim as a young teenager. That, and also jailbreaking android phones. All the interesting things i’ve ever done with computers was probably against some BS terms of service.
So, is piracy something you would actively teach your kids? Sit them down and teach them how to install a Fallout 3 FitGirl repack? Or is this something you’d want them to figure out themselves?
Absolutely. My entire network is behind a VPN, so they can’t fuck up. Windows is banned in my household, so I’m not worried about malware. I’m not paying 20 bucks a month for limited access to the ever shrinking Netflix library, which I can’t even use behind a VPN or share with other people. Piracy is the only way forward.
Windows is banned in my household, so l’m not worried about malware.
This is a false sense of security and just because you’re not running Windows doesn’t mean you’re immune to everything and can let your defenses down. For example, KDE recently had to announce that downloading themes will execute arbitrary code and cited someone who had personal information deleted because of downloading a theme.
I knew I would get a comment about this. Yes, I absolutely know that Linux is not at all immune to malware, but the chances of finding Linux malware on a typical piracy website are very low. That’s why Anti-virus is unecessary on Linux.
well its a step up at least…
in regards to privacy using something like windows already has you fucked up. As opposed to something like using KDE which might rm -rf your system.
Teaching how to do it safely might save their ass. And your own if they pirate at home.
- piracy is not theft
- “If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing.”
- morality and legality don’t always correlate
- a good adblocker is worth more than an antivirus, you should always be running one regardless of activity
Remember how many years ago antiviruses kept track of such types of malware as adware and spyware? When did you last see that kind of alert when seeing ad filled pages or when using software from facebook on your computer?
Antiviruses don’t worth shit today. Their only purpose is to delete your keygens on the basis that kEyGeNs ArE mOrE lIkElY tO hAvE a ViRuS.
Absolutely. If I had any
I’d never thought about this but when the time comes I’ll teach my sons, but hopefully they’ll tell me some new way I don’t know yet. Also a true pirate should check out Usenet.
I’m a capitalist but even I think visual media needs a come to Jesus. If they had adopted the Spotify model everyone would be a lot happier. I would be paying for content still. Instead they broke up into a dozen different services with walled content. This is so stupid. I have no qualms keeping my own collection when this is the paid offering.
Isn’t that an argument of monopoly by Netflix would be better?
No. See Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Tidal. They all contain something like 99% content overlap. You can subscribe to any of them and access almost all music. The difference is price, performance, UX, and features.
I’m not sure that’s true of TV series. I’m not arguing for monopoly by the way. Exclusives are anticompetitive and that’s bad!
Do you own a factory or something? Believing capitalism is the best economic system does not make you a capitalist.
S: (n) capitalist (a conservative advocate of capitalism)
S: (n) capitalist (a person who invests capital in a business (especially a large business))
I haven’t taught my kids. . .yet.
However, they know that if they can’t find something they want to watch, they just have to ask me and I’ll get it from them. . .and that (sarcastically) “daddy is just borrowing it from the internet” so I think know what’s going on.
Ah, you must have access to the same internet library that my Dad used whenever I’d give him my iPod and a list of music, and he’d return it to me full of music. I don’t remember when I realised that he was pirating stuff, probably about the time that I started pirating stuff.
Doesn’t sound like an easy task, perhaps a good start would be teaching them how to tie knots and learn wind direction. Once they are old enough to travel book a vacation to somalia and introduce them to the place, that’s where most of piracy is going on these days
Speaking personally I don’t know if its something I’d bring up to them, but if the topic comes up naturally I’d be honest about doing it and my moral reasoning for doing so. If the kid shows an interest or a curiosity about it then we can sit down and I’d teach them my ways. I took some stupid risks while I was still learning that I’d like to spare them from taking. Besides as you said it is technically illegal and if they are going to do it then it’s best that they be doing it safe. Especially seeing as they would likely be doing it in your home.
Children playing on a computer unsupervised has to have rules and boundaries (and physical backups). No, I’m not going to teach children, who are not even in their teens, to download or install anything, ever, unless I want them to learn about ransomware specifically.
Preventing teenage pregnancy by obfuscating sex has the same idea.
I agree with the boundaries part. The second part though: they will figure it out either way… At least my brother did when he was young and our parentsgot a nice lawyer in voice for that (fucked up laws, I know, I know).
Personally I want them to learn about ransomware! If that cost me a PC… My fault.
Sorry I was unclear, I meant to say I’m not teaching children who are not yet in their teens. I can see how it could be misconstrued as not teaching them even when they are teens. I’ll make an edit to clarify.
I would teach teens how to torrent, about cyber-security and VMs, and how to know if something can or cannot be trusted.
It’s like sex education and education about drugs and alcohol. It’s necessary information for kids, even if you don’t want them to do it, because if they don’t know anything about those things, they’ll end up with lots of problems.
Teach them how, why and why not, be honest and then trust them to make an informed decision on their own
If I teach them, they’ll find it boring. Better to be a role model and answer questions if they have them.
I will teach anyone who will listen.
Comment that I’m adding on a couple of friends’. One lives in Norway, one lived in India. They told me that both of these places have an issue with accessing media and other digital goods legitimately, often finding themselves willing but unable to pay for something (I was surprised to hear this about Norway — my friend speculates that Norway is small enough that it might simply be forgotten about when big media companies negotiate rights). They both said that VPNs and piracy are way more normalised in their home countries, because it was either that, or miss out on loads of stuff.
Feel it’s useful and important to highlight that the degree to which piracy is normalised depends on where you are.
My mom introduced me to Napster. So at this point, it would be a family tradition.
