• Aceticon@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    It’s really very simple:

    • When it’s for the benefit of the Owner class (in this specific case mainly Publishers) it’s ownership hence people are told they’re buying games (only to discover after paying that it’s not so) and piracy is described and even in some countries treated as Theft.
    • When it’s for the benefit of citizens in general it’s intellectual property and it’s not really owned by them when they buy it (only licensed, often in such a way that they can lose access to what they were told they were buying) and if they do happen to created intellectual property themselves it can easily be taken away from the by the Owner class who “curiously” even in those countries which treat Piracy the same as Theft won’t be criminally held responsible for it.

    It’s the good old “one rule for thee another for me” so popular with authoritarians, especially Fascists (which probably explains why Germany is one of a few countries in Europe that criminalizes piracy, but de facto only treats it as such when it’s the little people doing it).