Steal This Comic

Now that the US is run by literal criminals, any moral objection to something here on the grounds that it's illegal has no weight whatsoever.

Bandcamp was acquired by Epic, but they still offer DRM-free downloads of all your music, give artists good cuts, and if you buy on Bandcamp Friday, the best cut any artist could hope for. I'd rather there was a distributed solution without a corporation taking a cut off the top, but it's still getting you pretty close to the artist.

Add Amazon to that list now that you can't download your Kindle books.

PSA: Download all your kindle books. Even if you don't plan on cracking their DRM, you'll have the option to in the future should you want to.
- https://github.com/treetrum/amazon-kindle-bulk-downloader
- Though do it before the end of the month! (Edit: the 26th) Amazon is taking that option away
  
  Wednesday the 26th, not the end of the month. If anyone is thinking they'll get to it later, you have three days from this post

Based xkcd
- I have all of his books in physical format. Would recommend.

And that's why Bandcamp exists. No DRM, whatever format you like and you support the artist.
- Oh man. One time, at band camp…🐈‍⬛ 🪈
  
  Yes? Did something happen at band camp?
- Let's hope the new owners won't destroy it.
- Plus prices on there are lower than basically everywhere but amazon, and amazon doesn't really count because they only give you low quality MP3s

I'd pay for it once to support the creators. Once and once only.
- After I paid Metallica for their music, more than once in some cases, and then they went to war on us fans, been stealing since.
  Blast from the past GenX!
- But think of the shareholders? How can they afford that 8th yacht?? 🛥️🛥️🛥️🛥️🛥️🛥️🛥️

I use audible, but remove the drm with Libation.

Support creators though. Especially if the thing you pirate isn’t from a soulless corporation. This is why creators should always have something like a ko-fi or Patreon page. So I can pay them directly if I enjoyed their work.
- Dox them and send an envelope with cash.
- I buy a ton of XKCD merch for this very purpose. I support others on Patreon, by buying from their advertisers and by buying their audiobooks on Libro.fm or a physical copy.
  Amazon and other middlemen add nothing, they simply take a cut off the top. They maintain DRM solely to extract an maximum profits and lock in their customers and sellers. It is extortion and should be illegal.

Small note: iTunes doesn’t have DRM anymore (since 2009)
Apple Music (the subscription) has DRM though, but you should never have a collection on a subscription service, because it can go away at any time
- Yes, exactly. The comic was published on October 13, 2008, according to Explain XKCD, that's probably why iTunes is in it.

I buy most of my music from Qobuz or Bandcamp. Perfectly DRM-free with lossless compression, and it's mine forever.

Last time I bought audiobooks I got them from Downpour which included DRM-free downloads as either MP3 or M4B files, in addition to listening through the website or app. I believe Libro.fm may also offer this. Most of my ebooks are through Kobo and are DRM free as well.
Does depend in some cases on the publisher.

Libation is your friend.

There are probably some teenagers pirating stuff right now who weren't even alive when this comic was drawn. I'm old.

Always knew xkcd is a bro

I have to download pirated video games otherwise I can't play them offline on my handheld. They also launch 10x faster. I learnt that you can't use everything you own a copy of offline!
- I use a mix of Goldberg emulator and GOG i prefer Steam though. Mostly for valves Proton compatibility layer and all that valve does for linux gaming. So if a game is drm free on steam i get it there.
  Fuck denuvo tho that shit needs to die in a fire.
  
  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought everybody was making a big deal over Civ 7 getting an official release because denuvo doesn't work on linux?
  I read people saying the lack of denuvo made the linux version the best version just for the fact that it's the PC release without denuvo?
  Did I misunderstand?
- Which handheld, and what are 3 examples of games that launch 10x faster?
  
  I'm not the person you replied to, but if you've ever tried to launch an EA game with the DRM intact it's awful. You have to go through like multiple loading screens for the "EA App" before the game will start and then sometimes it just breaks and won't launch your game even though the game itself is perfectly fine.

When purchasing isn't ownership, then piracy isn't theft.
- That's why it's legal to carjack rental cars.
  
  If you're able to make a copy of the car, then sure. Otherwise, no.

Ok, what next?
- xkcd comics are available under a CC-By-NC 2.5 licence, so you've successfully pirated by not including attribution (as long as people can't tell at a glance that it's xkcd from the art style or comment thread you posted it to), but to seal the deal, it'd be a crime to sell it.
  
  I couldn't tell at glance this was from xkcd and am willing to testify to a jury, when's the court date?
- I'll give you $5 for it.

Buy CDs.
- Sony would like to have a word.
- Fun things, under some legislation, ripping your own CD is not necessarily legal.
- You mean those things that get scratched all the time and not have their revenue go towards the artist anyway?
  
  Several years back, a group of friends and I gathered with our copies of the Nine Inch Nails album "The Downward Spiral." Unfortunately, all three CDs were heavily scratched. However, by combining parts of the same songs that played well on different discs, we managed to create a complete version of the entire album.
  The record companies never gave a damn about quality.

I saw someone on YouTube pissed that they bought 700 ebooks from Amazon and now that they enforce a harder DRM he can't read them anymore.
Bruh, you voted with your wallet to get DRM in your ebooks. You can't complain if one day they change the encryption
- I fully believe that if you paid for something, it gives you the right to go pirate another copy.
- The vast majority of the public hsve no idea what you just said.
  Their brain goes "I like book. I buy book! No more book? But I buy book!"
  
  I agree, but I also sort of think that's fair enough. The fact that most people "buying" ebooks don't understand what their transaction implies suggests a major market failing.
- But I didn't think the leopards would eat MY face?!
- With Amazons pending change to not allow ebook downloads, I downloaded all mine. I then tried to convert them to epub format and a little over half converted. I only have 80 though, I can't imagine doing that for 700.
- I think we have to thank people like this for demonstrating that losing your collection isn't just a theoretical risk.

Here is my idea: Everyone makes a private key. When they buy a song they receive the file and a digital signature by the label saying they sold it to your ~~private~~public key. When you are caught with a bunch of songs, you have to prove ownership using your key. Tadaa provable ownership, no blockchain, You loose the file, but still have the signature? You can download it again and all is good.
EDIT: Of course, they would sign the public key, sorry.
- But what if you still have file, but lose the signature?
  
  In this construct the key is the thing, that signifies the owner. If it's lost, there is no help. Unless the key is tied to you and an authority can vouch for you.
  
  Well if the record label was still around they could make ownership details public, or let you download the signed file again.
- A digital signature from the label would be created with their private key.
  What would they be signing? Your public key plus the ID of the song? They can't sign your private key, it's private.
  What stops you sharing your private key and a song with a friend. Then when either of you need to provide proof, you can both show that you have the private key that matches the signed file?
  
  Well they would sign my public key plus ID of the song. I can prove, it is my public key and everyone can verify the song belongs to me.
  You are right, to ensure noone can "share login" so to say, it needs to be tied to you personally. That would deny privacy sadly.
  EDIT: Didn't notice I wrote the wrong thing, thanks for notifying me.
- Wait, isn't that just nfts?
  
  I don't think so. There nothing non fungible in my idea and nfts require a blockchain.

For DRM free audiobooks check out Libro.fm.

The most recent book I pirated was What If? 2.
- I have DRM-free versions of How To and What If?.
  They're made of trees.
  
  I really like physical media. Thing is, I don't have the space for shelves upon shelves of physical media.

I buy CDs and rip them into lossless myself unless it's not available and then I'll sail

I tried, but I can't, since it's Creative Commons
- Technically you can: if you distribute the comic but don't give the attribution, you are breaking the terms of the license which is just about the closest thing to "pirating" it that you can do.
  
  But "breach of license" is so much more lame than "piracy!"*
  Yes, a lot of piracy is itself breach of license, hush

Feel like it's too arduous to pirate music these days
edit: Thank you guys for all the suggestions
- Qobuz and Bandcamp exist. You can buy drm free music from there. Head over to !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com for free options. It's not that hard.
- Try Soulseek, it has just about everything.
- Arduous?! Why you little...
  In the AOL days, I got on newsgroups and hunted songs. Good luck finding what you wanted. Then I'd download 6-12 pieces and use software to tack those pieces into a single MP3. At 56K. (Really 53K, at best, and that was with tweaking modem strings and whatnot.)
  I repeat: Why you little...
  
  53Kbps was what you got? Psst, damn younglings. In my day we reached 8Kbps speeds and considered ourselves lucky if our moms didn't want to call anyone...
  
  I think part of it has to do with how a lot of people listen to music now. I don't listen to albums I find one or two songs I like from an artist and and them to a playlist. I am lucky to find an artist where I like more than 50% of their music.
- I just rip my songs from Spotify. It's not the highest quality, but it's easy to find stuff and I wrote a little script to quickly download lists of tracks and albums so it's pretty convenient.
  
  I rip them from youtube, that way I don't have to log into anything first.
  
  You can rip them from tidal too. not going to link the service because I'm unsure of .worlds feelings on it but it is not hard to find.