Comment on Ubisoft says you "cannot complain" it shut down The Crew because you never actually owned it, and you weren't "deceived" by the lack of an offline version

• null@slrpnk.net ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  copyright is a type of intellectual property, an area of law distinct from that which covers robbery or theft, offenses related only to tangible property.

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  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I mean, I can be as much of a pedant as you and post an unsourced definition of ‘ip theft’ … or maybe you could just admit you’d never heard of the term ‘ip theft’, or are unaware of its use.

    Its a pretty commonly used term, especially amongst government regulatory and business organizations, as well as academics who study policy, in the US.

    The term itself, its phrasing, is intentionally constructed to frame copyright infringement as a form of theft, stealing something that doesn’t belong to you.

    The psychological framing of the term is meant to frame losses from someone committing copyright infringement against you as equivalent to losses from being robbed.

    The entire point of the usage of this term is to mold public perception.

    Here’s some examples where very prominent US institutions/organizations use some construction or variation of ‘ip theft’ an an umbrella term to refer to all kinds of copyright, trademark and/or patent infringement:

    FBI

    fbi.gov/…/countering-the-growing-intellectual-pro…

    KPMG (huge business consulting group)

    kpmg.com/us/…/theft-intellectual-property.html

    DHS (Homeland Security)

    www.dhs.gov/intellectual-property-rights

    IPRC (Intellectual Property Rights Center)

    www.iprcenter.gov

    And finally, literally IPTheft.org, which basically functions as an all-in-one training/resource hub that connects business people to all kinds of resources to report when they have suffered… IP theft.

    www.iptheft.org

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    • null@slrpnk.net ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      The claim was that Ubisoft called piracy “theft”. Have they done that, or not?

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• sushibowl@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I’ve always heard it referred to as infringement, in a legal context. I’m sure game publishers (and music, film, etc.) would like to equate it in the public mind with common theft of physical goods, but it’s all just propaganda.

  We’re just playing games with words at this point. The law is pretty clear, that distributing a copyrighted work such as a copy of a video game is illegal. I don’t know why people like to repeat this line, that “if buying a game isn’t owning then piracy isn’t theft.” Maybe it is a moral/ethical argument? It’s not going to help you in court.

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  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    The entire original comment chain that lead to what I replied to … was all about playing word games with slogans, progoganda, public relations.

    The law may be ‘clear’, but it is clearly bullshit.

    It is absurdly deferential toward the rights of megacorps and hostile to the rights of consumers.

    Laws are supposed to reflect and codify morals and ethics, arise from them… not determine them.

    But, as we slip more and more into a cyberpunk dystopia of hypercapitalist megacorps being able to basically just buy legislators, judges and laws, it will become more evident that the government is just entirely a facade directed by them.

    This whole article is about a lawsuit in America, you know, the land of the fee, home of the early and very expensive grave?

    The place with the ongoing fascist coup that’s dismantling all the government agencies that regulate corporations, after the richest man in the world just bought an election, and more recently openly tried to buy a state judge, and though he didn’t succeed, will likely face no penalty for doing that very obviously illegal thing?

    Also, as far as at least acquring a pirated game?

    Its not that hard.

    Now hosting them? Sharing them?

    Yep, you’re right, that’s a bit more difficult… but hey, be clever enough to not get caught, and thats the same as being rich enough to write your own laws.

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