Ask HN: Why Is HN Pro-Piracy? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Why Is HN Pro-Piracy?

#11

Post by pestatije » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 4:29 PM UTC

xhkkffbf wrote: post #9

As a writer, I must say that this always makes me feel sad. If I complain about piracy, I get modded down. It's pretty clear to me that a few people with the power mod down any anti-piracy sentiment. I'm almost certainly going to get modded down now. Many of the others have posted some good explanations that tie the pro-piracy people to the idea that information wants to be free. In other words, asking people to pay…

On the other hand my code is paid by the hour and belongs to my employer, whereas books, music recordings and movies have a 95 year long copyright enforced by law. I know which tribe is ripping off the other.

Re: Ask HN: Why Is HN Pro-Piracy?

#12

Post by aaaaaaaaata » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 4:52 PM UTC

capableweb wrote: post #3

Hacker news has a lot of "hackers" (older meaning of the word) participating in the discussions. Hackers are usually pro-free information flow on the private level. So it doesn't really surprise me.

The Internet interprets censorship as breakage and routes around it.

Re: Ask HN: Why Is HN Pro-Piracy?

#13

Post by isbvhodnvemrwvn » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 4:55 PM UTC

For majority of the companies I worked, the only copyrightable content - at code itself - was rarely the main driver of success (or failure), it was nearly always some combination of luck, culture and business strategy.

Re: Ask HN: Why Is HN Pro-Piracy?

#14

Post by duped » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 5:03 PM UTC

> a strange position to have for knowledge workers whos main output is also intellectual property that is stolen constantly by others.

It's not that strange for folks who consider the value of even significant chunks of code or distributed software to be close to zero. Combine that with the lack of value of copy protection at its significant and it makes total sense why developers may have a weak stance on piracy.

I think at the end of the day people just don't care.

Re: Ask HN: Why Is HN Pro-Piracy?

#15

Post by randomhodler84 » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 5:04 PM UTC

This is hacker news, not boot licking statist news.

It’s not a strange position, infact, I would say going on a hacker board and moralizing is a strange position. Hackers just want information to be free.

Re: Ask HN: Why Is HN Pro-Piracy?

#16

Post by randomhodler84 » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 5:10 PM UTC

xhkkffbf wrote: post #9

As a writer, I must say that this always makes me feel sad. If I complain about piracy, I get modded down. It's pretty clear to me that a few people with the power mod down any anti-piracy sentiment. I'm almost certainly going to get modded down now. Many of the others have posted some good explanations that tie the pro-piracy people to the idea that information wants to be free. In other words, asking people to pay…

Mostly out of practicality. Gone are the days of safety running binary warez. (Code) [malware]. Too many malcode and viruses.

Data on the other hand, is far less risky, as malicious content would need to exploit the file format parser, etc which is much harder than Trojan using a binary. You probably are not getting malware from mp3s.

Re: Ask HN: Why Is HN Pro-Piracy?

#17

Post by uni_rule » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 6:13 PM UTC

pestatije wrote: post #11

xhkkffbf wrote: post #9

As a writer, I must say that this always makes me feel sad. If I complain about piracy, I get modded down. It's pretty clear to me that a few people with the power mod down any anti-piracy sentiment. I'm almost certainly going to get modded down now. Many of the others have posted some good explanations that tie the pro-piracy people to the idea that information wants to be free. In other words, asking people to pay…

On the other hand my code is paid by the hour and belongs to my employer, whereas books, music recordings and movies have a 95 year long copyright enforced by law. I know which tribe is ripping off the other.

The lawyer one?

Re: Ask HN: Why Is HN Pro-Piracy?

#18

Post by xhkkffbf » Mon, Jul 04, 2022, 6:58 PM UTC

pestatije wrote: post #11

xhkkffbf wrote: post #9

As a writer, I must say that this always makes me feel sad. If I complain about piracy, I get modded down. It's pretty clear to me that a few people with the power mod down any anti-piracy sentiment. I'm almost certainly going to get modded down now. Many of the others have posted some good explanations that tie the pro-piracy people to the idea that information wants to be free. In other words, asking people to pay…

On the other hand my code is paid by the hour and belongs to my employer, whereas books, music recordings and movies have a 95 year long copyright enforced by law. I know which tribe is ripping off the other.

Uh, your code is protected by the same copyright law as books, music recordings and movies. The only reason the GPL, for instance, has any teeth is because of copyright law.

If there's no copyright, anyone can steal your employer's code and then your employer won't have money to pay you by the hour.