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?

  • Proteus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    ·
    7 months ago

    Not a parent yet, so take this with a big grain of salt.

    But if I were to talk about piracy from a moral standpoint, I would first talk about stealing. Yes, we all know it's not the same, and it isn't, but there will certainly be someone who says it is, and it's better to clear that out. Besides, there are some parallels.

    1. Stealing is reprehensible, but extremely so when you steal for someone who much needs it himself. Shoplifting is bad and can lead to serious consequences. Stealing money from a poor person is extremely bad and can't be justified.
    2. Stealing is when you take something and the owner doesn't have it anymore. Piracy ain't that.

    Then a bit on moral and legal grounds of piracy:

    1. While piracy isn't stealing, piracy does decrease profits of the rightful owner. When you pirate from someone who does not profit much off something, it's same as stealing from poor man. Piracy is impactful, and it's important to remember.
    2. Piracy may lead to legal consequences, which is why one shouldn't normally pirate stuff regardless of morality. But if the conditions of rightful ownership (cost, regional or use restrictions etc.) are inadequate, there exists such a way.

    And in any case, I think the later you tell your kids about "illegal doesn't mean bad" the better. Could save a lot of trouble IMO.

    • Saeculum [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      7 months ago

      While piracy isn't stealing, piracy does decrease profits of the rightful owner.

      Only if you would otherwise have bought it. If you never had any intention to buy the thing, the rightful owner loses nothing.

    • aldalire@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      ·
      7 months ago

      YES. My gf made the point that when our kids are young, when their frontal lobe hasn’t developed yet, we will teach them black and white morality. But that’s only half the truth, since stealing from walmart or a big chain has a different moral flavor than stealing some random person’s things. In a way, I acknowledge that piracy isn’t stealing, and carries with it enormous societal benefits, like the freedom of information, but it’s still illegal, and I don’t want them to be OK doing illegal things.

      Maybe the perfect solution is to leave out the inconvenient fact that piracy is illegal when teaching them how to pirate. LOL