Preface: I personally don’t care if it’s legal or not, I’m gonna do it anyway. But, I wanted to pose the question here to people who are smarter than me to get your opinions. Plus, my partner is completely anti-piracy so I can only enjoy it by myself and it makes me kind of sad to do so. So it’d be nice to give them a reason to consider it. Also also, I am not knowledgeable enough to even know if this is a stupid question, so please be kind.
I saw an old post/comment chain that the stremio + rd + torrentio combo is “technically” legal in the states due to some workaround about distributing vs consuming. You’re also not downloading anything or torrenting anything. I know that on their own, Stremio and RD are perfectly legit sites. But adding Torrentio into the mix is where it gets the spicy flavor. Now that some years have passed and that post might be outdated, what are your thoughts now? Is there a case to be made in favor of this being legal?
The arguments around piracy are less about legality (in most places its copyright infringement which is NOT “stealing” but is illegal). Its more the moral and ethical arguments. Is it moral for a service to remove something that you’ve paid for? Is it ethical for people, through no fault of their own, to not be able to afford entertainment. Is it moral for large corporations to price gouge and continuously Make Line Go Up while offering a continuously worse product? Is it moral to copy software not available in your country? Is it ethical for companies to force people into subscriptions for the sole purpose of making more money when they already have loads? Is it ethical to pirate when companies refuse to support the operating system you have? Is it moral to copy software when the company that makes it is not just unethical but has been found to be taking part in things like genocide? Is it ethical for huge corporations to manipulate democracy and laws to serve their profits at the expense of everyone else? Is capitalism itself ethical?
Most people I know who are anti-pirate just lack an understanding of why people engage in copyright infringement. Calling people “scum” and “thieves” without understanding the very big moral and ethical considerations behind what drives people to piracy is reductionist, ignorant and Othering for the sake of self-superiority.
Not saying that your partner thinks that way, just that its a very common example of thinking that misses the important points and that its not just about what’s legal and what’s not (because there are many things that are or have been illegal that are completely unethical.)