A buddy of mine is pretty insistent on physical media, wherever possible, and honestly, at this point, he's been proven right again and again.
Sad that most executable code (games, software, etc) these days is digital only and requires drm calls to a license server to install. I will not pirate executable code.
Reminds me of an American guy who I met in the UK around 2005 when I was doing my PhD (he was doing his 2nd PhD!!!). He refused to open a "cloud" email account (Google, Hotmail, etc). At the time when I asked why, he mentioned something that has stuck with me for all these years:
"It's not about what they are doing NOW with the data, but what they could do in the future" . Back then I thought he was a bit paranoid. These days... not so much.
So, regarding owning/buying stuff, im glad I have a collection of CDs and ibe bought most of my games in physical
There are some which are actually hard to get in pirate sites.
Yeah. Copyright monopolists equate copyright infringement to literal high seas piracy because it's the only way they can make any impact. Nobody would give a fuck otherwise.
One would think dozens of SWAT officers would rappel down helicopters and storm the mansions of these big tech CEOs. Unpayable trillion dollar fines, actual prison time. Instead the AI companies reached some absurd settlements with publishers that made a mockery out of all the previous copyright enforcement victims.
The fact that lawyers dreamt up the notion of "Imaginary Property" called it "Intellectual Property" and built a business around the scam for themselves, and other people take it seriously is some of the most compelling evidence that humans suck.
In the digital age where the cost of copying itself is functionally zero, we're supposed to pay people over and over again for a thing created once is like the human race taking advantage of itself.
I get making money for labor, novelty, and producing things but repeated payments thereafter would feel like a scam to any reasonable alien.
'Copyright' is humans at their most greedy and selfish.
Sad that most executable code (games, software, etc) these days is digital only and requires drm calls to a license server to install. I will not pirate executable code.