Do you actually own anything digital?::From ebooks, to videos and software, the answer is increasingly no

  • Xtremis77@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Well, I have 10 Tb of pirated digital content sitting safely at my own home, so I would say yes, yes I do own a lot of digital stuff.

      • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Those are rookie numbers. Need to start getting entire TV shows in 4k and things you’ve seen previously but may want to watch again in the future quickly and easily.

      • foggy@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Y’all are chumps.

        I got 6TB SSD and 16TB HDD.

        But I guess it’s less than half full so… Idk, maybe Im the chump with too much headroom.

          • foggy@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            If I can figure out a way to make my next server upgrade a tax write off, I’ll flex back.

            • Resol van Lemmy@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              It’s probably the entire database of World Cup matches (including qualifier matches), plus the entire database of entries to the Eurovision Song Contest (including those of national finals), in addition to every single thing that happened at the 'Lympic Games. All in glorious 8K quality (yes, everything got upscaled by world class upscaling software).

            • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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              11 months ago

              Just general movies+tv shows.

              It started as a classic Disney film collection and has expanded quite dramatically over the last 7ish years.

              Now a days I’ve got a half a dozen users feeding requests into Ombi along with a bunch of imdb lists being monitored; growing the library entirely automatically.

              /edit: who am I kidding, it’s just hundreds of copies of one man one jar with different filters applied…

    • 69420@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      They’re my bytes, and I’ll put them in whatever order I wish, thank you very much.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    11 months ago

    If it’s on my Jellyfin server, I own it as much it’s possible to own anything.

    If they wanted me to pay for it, maybe they shouldn’t have dicked me around, watering down my subscribed services while simultaneously jacking up the price.

    • YⓄ乙 @aussie.zone
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      11 months ago

      How ? Please share so that people like me can learn. I’ve started watching Louis Rossman YouTube videos and that guy actually makes sense about how companies are treating their customers.

      • viking@infosec.pub
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        11 months ago

        Not the OP, but I’m buying DRM free ebooks and software only, and for every album, movie or series I purchase, I’ll download a pirated copy that I add to my offline storage + backup.

        If a book I want is not available without DRM, I’ll buy a hardcover and a pirated copy.

        • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
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          11 months ago

          Also you can remove some types of DRM with DeDRM plugin for calibre.

          For music, buy a record on Bandcamp to support the actual artists instead of the record label and they give you free FLAC or high quality MP3 downloads along with all physical media. Otherwise pirate the album for a digital copy and buy the physical in a store.

        • Dexx1s@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Even if you buy it(which I do support more and more), pirate it. We’re at a point where it’s just far easier to use the pirated versions of a lot of digital items and you also don’t have to worry about someone “taking it back” afterwards.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Can it be taken from you, at any time, for any reason or no reason at all?

    If yes, then you don’t own it.

    • Waluigis_Talking_Buttplug@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I mean, that technically applies to everything. The government can seize your land, the police are in the news every few days for straight up taking money out of people’s homes and vehicles and shooting dogs, robbery is still a living profession, etc

      There’s really not a lot that sentence doesn’t apply to, if anything at all.

        • AlataOrange@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Yes, imminent domain. You don’t own land you only lease it from the government.

        • otp@sh.itjust.works
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          11 months ago

          Can they stop your land?

          I think you mean seize. And I guess it depends on where you live in the world.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        When it comes to the US government at least, there are 4th Amendment protections in place, so no, your property can’t be seized “for any reason or no reason at all”.

        Theft is a thing, but it’s random and you have the right to defend yourself in your own home. You also aren’t at risk for losing EVERYTHING. Not in the way you are if your digital library license gets revoked.

        • AlataOrange@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          If a cop can take your property with no consequences and you will be arrested or killed if you defend yourself and your property, then what the law says doesn’t matter as the defacto state of reality isn’t concerned with such petty things as laws.

        • doingthestuff@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          You clearly don’t know about the state of seizure laws in the US over the last years. Having cash is reason enough for them to seize it and they don’t have to suspect you of a crime. They can simply find the cash as suspicious and take it and you have to prove the legality of your cash or property at your own cost/expense to get it back.

        • AdmiralShat@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          This comment is so fucking frustratingly ignorant of the realities of living in the US. Is this a troll comment?

        • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          11 months ago

          The fourth amendment of the Constitution of the United States does give us protection against unreasonable search and seizure, but the unreasonable is its weak link and as such your protections have been gutted by SCOTUS since the 1990s and the War on Drugs.

          If law enforcement seizes everything you own via asset forfeiture, or kills you in cold blood when you are neither armed nor resisting, your estate can sue to get your belongings back or compensation for wrongful death, but a ruling against law enforcement in your favor is the exception in the US, not the rule.

          Avoid engagement with US law enforcement. Ever. And if you must deal with them, do not expect any right to be respected. Under no circumstances should you call law enforcement to respond to a situation.

  • User79185@discuss.tchncs.de
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    11 months ago

    GOG, buy music in mp3/flac format, not sure about video. I guess you can pay for subscription and just pirate stuff you like to keep real ownership.

    • MashedTech@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I like that on GOG you know you own it because they let you download the installer DRM free so you literally can keep a separate copy of all of your purchases. You will always have access to them regardless of what happens to GOG. Videos, music, games, everything they sell.

      • stoy@lemmy.zip
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        11 months ago

        Gog provides DRM free installers when buying games at their store

  • jabjoe@feddit.uk
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    11 months ago

    If you’re on Lemmy, you almost certainly understand the problem and know how to acturally own digital stuff.

    The problem is all the normies who can’t even see the problem. We need everyone to be protected by law and it all to be citizen oriented. As the moment, it’s all stacked in favour of exploitive multinational companies. Maybe ever was it so, but we need to fight that.

    We treat it as a tech problem, something to work round, but it’s a political problem and we need to solve it politically.

  • kerrigan778@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Possession is 9/10ths of the law, so I 90% own a whole lot of stuff I pirated while I don’t own most things Ive paid money for… Great system guys

  • LainOfTheWired@lemy.lol
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    11 months ago

    It all depends on the licence. Even if you buy something on physical media you may not technically own it. If something has a FOSS licence MIT, BSD, GPL, etc Then yes you do own your copy and no one can change that.

    • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      I may only have a license to view the contents of a dvd, but at least I’ll always be able to view it as long as it’s in my possession and I have a dvd player.

      Content you can only access remotely via someone else systems (or requiring remote authorization via there systems) can be taken away at anytime regardless of the terms of your license, even supposedly “indefinite/permanent/lifetime” licences.

      Both of these items use the same term ‘purchase’. This term used to refer to the first situation only, but now it covers both.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago
      1. FOSS licenses are distribution licenses, not EULAs. You have the right to own and use software you acquire even without agreeing to them; they only “kick in” when you decide to do something that would otherwise violate copyright law.

      I liked the explicit way version 2 of the GPL explained it:

      Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).

      Version 3 says the same, but less clearly (note that “affirms” is entirely different from “grants”):

      This License explicitly affirms your unlimited permission to run the unmodified Program.

      1. EULAs presume to “grant” you something you already have due to the First Sale Doctrine (namely, the right to use your property) and are therefore complete bunk as they lack “consideration.” If you believe EULAs are somehow valid just because the copyright cartel’s shysters say so, you need to learn to quit taking advice from the enemy!