Thanks To Playstation, I'm Now Pro-Piracy 

Crazy. I've been ripping stuff to Minidisc for years. Thought I was the only one. Bought a deck a few years back. Hooked up through optical. I listen to something on Spotify I like I hit record on my minidisc player. That simple.

Honestly say it with me fellas, “If buying isn’t owning, then piracy isn’t stealing.”

If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing.

I've gone in a full circle for digital piracy. When I was young, I pirated everything. Films, games, music. As I got older and got my job I purchased them and now, with big companies fleecing your money for content that you legally purchased I am back to piracy. We need to fight the "You will own nothing and be happy" companies.

Well said, Rich. The All-Digital future REALLY needs to come with some consumer protections. Right now, the switch to all-digital is 100% to the advantage of the big companies out there, not consumers.

As the creator of Steam once said, "Piracy isn't a pricing issue, it's a user experience issue.", and "The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates."

This is why physical media is important. For all the people that say everything is going to be digital only, are you going to defend this?

This is why I always go with physical video games if it's an option. If you love indie games, getting them on physical does cost a whole lot more, but at least you own them forever. With digital, there is always a chance that they'll take it away from you. That chance may be super slim most of the time, but even for the products that seem the safest of all, it's still probably only a matter of time before even those are taken from you. Times change, and nobody can predict the future. Your digital purchase may be there for 25 years, then one day you're informed that you'll no longer be able to access certain legacy products, and yours just happens to be on that list.

When it comes shows and stuff, I always have this thought process: If it's within your means, buy the dvd/bluray version If you can't afford the physical disc (because sometimes physical copies of full seasons of shows are absurdly expensive), then rip or screen record the shows. If you're already paying for the streaming service, then you might as well record a local copy for yourself just in case.

These companies are begging you to pirate at this point.

Lewis Rossman pointed this out on his channel along with a Netflix fiasco. He paid for 4k but only got 720p! Companies do indeed give less than minimum when it comes to digital content.

It’s so crazy. I’ve always thought these digital purchases would be akin to buying DVDs digitally so I can’t even imagine someone coming in and stealing my DVDs.

I'm starting to do the same as you. One day I found a cassette tape from when I was a kid, and was so happy to be able to listen to it again, it made me change my mind about this issue. Now, when I watch something I like, I record it. And I've also cancelled my tidal subscription, and started to get my own song library in my NAS. Screw DRM, let me buy my movies in an MP4 and my songs in a WAV.

This is why I am glad I kept building up my physical collection of DVDs, Blurays and external hardrive of shows.

First backwards compatibility, now preservation piracy. Finally coming around mate👍

Rich, I just gotta say I respect you a lot for standing on the side of freedom and going against big companies!

in australia you do have options to fight this - purchased digital products are to be considered the same as physical products 1) consumer affairs complaint " product not fit for purpose " 2) tax office fraud and theft ( 1 count of theft before deadline, 2 counts of theft after deadline if no agreement for compensation met ) 3) australian securities ind investments commission -- managements failure to meet its legal obligations or understand them -- theft and fraud

This is why I support physical copies when you can get them.

This is why I’m gradually converting to PC gaming. In a digital world, only the pirates are truly free

I have gone digital since 2016, but I recently got myself again an Xbox 360 to play some games on my account. I bought some games on physical disks, others I download them and back up what I can. About music, I have a lot of music cds stored away in my room somewhere. I have a ripped copy of all of them on several DVDs, I may copy them to a SSD for another backup. I have a huge Spotify playlist that maybe difficult to backup and will be looking for the minidisc video. Thanks Rich for all the videos.

If companies are openly stating in court that digital purchases are not property then I'm baffled as to why on earth they can claim piracy is theft. It is copyright infringement because of an agreement not to duplicate but I can't see it being anything other than that. Why is Rich still generalising by saying constantly that all game discs are just coasters without acknowledging that PlayStation discs for the most part contain a full playable version of the game without internet? Yes there's updates and yes without them it can get a little buggy but also its worth mentioning that people can now download the updates to their PCs from other sources and install them into their PlayStations via USB without ever needing to rub with PSN at all.

Apple did something similar to me with an album back in the day. I called to ask why the album I purchased was no longer in my purchases. After proving I bought it, they told me they had to renew licensing on it, so I'd have to buy it again. After confirming that all their music was leased and not owned, I got rid of my iPhone and switched to Android.

Arrrrr Rich Welcome aboard brother. Piracy is the only way at point brother if don't want to get screwed with the digital future. Physical disc is not really an option anymore so the choice now is to pay for a digital copy of something and have it removed or piracy something you be able to keep forever. Im glad you made the wise decision. Lets sail off mateys!!

Loved this video Rick. Glad to see you finally poking at the real issues again. Gabe Newell famously said, "piracy is not a pricing issue, it's a service issue". The only way we hold corporations accountable is by requiring them to justify the cost of their services with security, availability, and customer guarantees. When corporations think "ownership" of intelectual propery entitles them to take advantage of their consumers, that's when consumers need to hold them accountable and not tolerate bad systems and services.

If companies mess up the digital future enough, and sales go down; they'll really only have one choice to fall back on. Physical, the tried and true.

I told this story a few times before, but it never gets old! Back in the day, I bought Test Drive Unlimited on PC online from the Atari store, of course, it had DRM. A few years later I changed my PC and the game required online login to the server to authenticate my purchase, alas, the Atari store was no more! I managed to get hold of them though, and their answer was more or less "hard luck!" I was like, you gotta be kidding! Naturally, I had to hack my own game to make it work again! The scary part is that this was back in early 2010's! It's only been getting worse since then!

I lived in South Korea as a foreigner for 6 years... One of the things I miss about that country is that over there digital piracy is PERFECTLY LEGAL... For one thing they do NOT and NEVER will recognize intellectual property in there court of law. This is due to a Asian concept that states that "nobody can own knowledge". And their laws reflect this concept!!! When I was over there it was impossible to even find a movie that wasn't pirated because they didn't sell them... If you tried to sell a "official" movie disk you would be laughed out of the market because it's too expensive... Because keep in mind that these pirates are downloading the movie basically for free so they can sell it for dirt cheap and still make a profit...

I remember when the eShop for the 3DS and Wii U was going down, some guy tried arguing with me "it's just time, not like anyone downloads anymore and buys from them anymore, we have the Switch eShop now so-" because yes, the Switch eShop definitely won't enter the same fate down the line. /s The ONLY reason I feel semi-comfortable with downloading from the Switch eShop is because I try to back up anything I buy on it, off my hacked Switch. (Oh, that DLC is gone because the eShop went down for good? Glad I made a backup. Oh you own Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl but only have 1.0 for it physically, so it is missing post game content AND EVEN THE INTRO MOVIE OF THE GAME??? ... well hey, I dumped the latest update before they took the servers down, so I can enjoy it fully) I don't even own a PS5 or Xbox Series console due to how bad I feel the market is getting for console games (have a good PC now and just use it, my Switch for any games requiring online for it, and my Steam Deck for Single Player Switch games and more) I'm most likely going to get Nintendo's next console, whenever that is, but will be leaving it alone until hackers hack the system because my trust in Nintendo has been at an all time low, and I'd rather have a way to back up my games in some regard if I get their next console. Also with PC, at least besides pirating, you have places like GOG and Itchio that provide games you buy, WITHOUT DRM. (While I do like Steam in some cases, ease of access for the Steam Deck and really good sales... there are still some things that make me point to GOG and Itchio first if you want to *actually* own your games, without DRM attached to them, so you can back up the games and store them wherever you want... almost as good as physical media for PC since you can make as many copies as you want and store them wherever) Would still love a way to get physical games for PC though, but don't see that coming back sadly :/ (I feel like these days if companies do a "one time deal with physical" they store them in a USB drive and not even on disk... as good example being Rivals 2's kickstarter currently, their "physical copy" (that only works locally) is saved via USB drive, *not* on disk)

Welcome to the pirate club, Rich! YAAAAAARRRR!

I think the "digtial age" will reach a peak and then people will crave physical media more than digital. Also crave for stuff made by a person rather than an AI and will pay good money to get such products. Creativity is the base line for human emotions. Might be a future where companies like Disney just fall off naturally. With their IPs going cheap and bought up by companies making physical products.

Honestly I agree with you. I realized this many years ago when it became unrelevant to buy CD's just because Spotify Or pandora had the Albums I wanted to listen to music but... It takes away from the box art and the album sleeves art. Yes buying digital media is one thing but buying physical media is another thing. If I was to go to the store right now and buy Is starfield. That is my own personal copy of the game. I can do whatever I please with it as long as it's not illegal. I should be able in 15 years from now to start up that game. That's my physical copy or my digital copy of the game yes I should be able to do whatever I want with it.

When Apple TVs started to come out I noticed a lot of people I know started to collect digital movies on iTunes/Apple TV. Pretty much all of them had no problem eventually paying for an old movie they had on dvd or Blu-ray just for the sake of adding it to their digital collection for convenience. This same mindset translates to any platform. People used to think digital content and copies are the future, but it’s just a matter of time before all of those companies do stuff like this. A lot of new movies are starting to become exclusive on streaming platforms, so no physical copies are made. You are forced to pay a subscription to stream it and there’s no guarantee it will be around in the future. Digital ownership is gone. Streaming is the new future. It’s expensive, always recurring, and crappier. Nintendo already did this on the Wii, Wii U, and NDS eShop

I love that Rich always stays true to his morals and isn’t afraid to speak his mind when bullshit is happening 💯🙏🏽

Remember everyone, piracy is a victimless crime and don’t listen to anything contrary.

I've been using Minidisc to record off of the internet for a few years now. Save them as mp3's and I have them for myself. Just like recording from the radio back in the day.

Bold, true and to the point, man. Wish there were more videos like that on RU-vid.

This is part of the reason why I still buy most of my movies on Blu-ray because if thereis a license disagreement, I still have the movie on a Blu-ray disc that I can just pop in my Blu Ray player and play at any tim. Man do I miss the old days of gaming when things are on the cartridge

The current state of the industry has had me revisiting my older consoles more, especially my PS3. MK 9, GTA 4, NBA 2K11, WWE 2K14, the original RE trilogy, World at War, Saints Row 2 etc, have all remained really good years later.

This happened for me with iTunes content I had purchased over the years. I had backed up my iTunes library to my iPod. I opened up my iTunes on my old G5 and half of it gone. I went to my iPod and it was still there.

This is corporations pushing their crappy streaming services. Even though they get rid of shows or movies from there, too.

This is just sad Sony should definitely be ashamed of what they’ve done 😭😭

This is why Christopher nolan still released Oppenheimer on blueray dvd and people still bought it

Haha did he just say that 😂😂😂 I love this guy

I want to own a MD recorder but currently i own a tape deck recorder and alot of tapes ive been recording songs i like onto for this exact reason. Most of the music i listen to is on RU-vid and we all know how RU-vid likes to randomly nuke channels for no reason. So if i like a song i back it up to tape so i can listen to it as much as i want. I use to tapes tho. A master backup tape and a play back tape that id use for ragular playback. Best part is i dont have to worry about bad Internet or stupid phone stuff keeping me from listening to my music

We all laughed at Milton and his "they took my stapler". Now it's our turn as consumers to be sent to the basement and having our stapler taken away.

People say digital is the way to go, but trust me it's not. A few months ago around 11:00 p.m., I got charge notification for a playstation purchase. I immediately called my bank and cancelled it thinking I was hacked. Turns out it was a EA subsciption I forgot about. Playstation suspended my acount because it was considered a chargeback and it violates some terms. I didn't realize my account was suspended because my kids broke the TV and I haven't played in months. I have no access to any games that I purchased digitally. I'm tryto resolve the issue now by paying of the debt, but that is not even a guarantee that I can restore my account.

Companies cannot double-dip like this. Meaning if they say taking something digitally is equivalent to taking something physically, that has to be the law of the land. If copying a music file is considered identical to stealing a CD, then taking someone’s digital movie file is the same as taking their physical DVD/Blu-ray. Which would be stealing that persons property (and breaking an entering their home). Sony is both breaking and entering your home (where your PlayStation resides), and stealing your property (the movie file or its link). Can’t have it both ways Corporations. If that is not ‘stealing’, then neither is copying digital files off the internet.

Just a thought, I imagine that the contracts with various streaming services have some clause within them stating that once you have purchase specific content, you can watch that content as many times as you want, but you are not allowed to record a copy of it, regardless of the form. Under the circumstances of Sony announcing that customers will no longer be able to view their previously _purchased_ content, shouldn't that negate the previously mentioned clause of the contract, and give the purchasers the right to make copies of the media they own. I know with DVDs, when they were the top format, and likely this carried over to Blu-Ray as well, a person could legally make copies of the media (DVDs, Blu-Rays) which they owned, basically for backup purposes, akin to insurance for recorded content should anything ever happen to it which makes it unplayable, then you have your copies that you can watch. Copying DVDs was only illegal if you did not own an original copy of the DVD being copied, or if you sold the copies, or even gave them away for free. I'm sure if anybody took such a case to be heard in front of a jury, the jury would rule on the side of the consumer. This is a nasty business tactic that really shows their true colors, but then again, anybody paying attention should not be surprised when these corporations urinate on you, and tell you that it is raining!!!

This should alert the Government that laws need to be made and enforced against these practices..

I feel like companies have done this since companies were invented. They always find a way to screw the customer.

I dunno if someone already said this, but for movies and music, purchasing physical is the way to go. You don't have an unfinished movie on a disk, like you do games. And it keeps you out of the FBI's cross hairs. Games, that's another matter.

I remember you did the segment on the god of war game, and they give you a digital code inside the box instead of an actual desk, and how box didn’t even come with the digital code to redeem the game this is crazy

LIVESTREAM CHANNEL: www.youtube.com/@RTUStreams MUSIC CHANNEL: www.youtube.com/@ilcapo7119

If digital distributors don’t offer a refund for any permanently removed content that people have purchased (be it movies, games or music) then ANYTHING GOES ME HEARTIES!!!

Ive been a proud pro-pirate since I first discovered YTMP3... And I LOVE IT

You are RIGHT about games just being placeholders! They're just a physical unlock. Not only that. You get movies where they change it later like what Diz does. "Oh that scene is no longer acceptable, so we're changing it."

This really feels like it shouldnt be legal. Like if you bought a physical item from a shop the shopkeeper cant just come to your house and take it back.They should have to issue refunds to everyone affected

I know this was about PlayStation, but relating to the generalized topic; this is why I purchase games from GOG when I have a choice. They’re the only company that I know of who’s entire mission statement is making sure that their customers actually own their games. No other company is doing that(that I know of at least). Anything you buy from GOG has zero DRM, which means I can be hold up in a watchtower with no internet for 50 years, and if I have a computer with GOG games installed, they’ll run. If I tried that with Steam, PlayStation or any other platform, I’d need an internet connection so they can peek in and check to see if I own what I’m trying to run. That isn’t ownership.

This looks like the beginning of a class action in the making. A strong argument would be unjust enrichment

Same thing happened to me on iTunes. Few songs I have purchased I can no longer download because it is not available anymore even though I have purchased the songs to listen anytime, anywhere.

I am just like you, was against piracy since I viewed it as stealing someone's hard work. But the way they can take our money for a product and then can come in and delete it, I can say that I was wrong in my attitude towards piracy.

One of two things need to happen, one a portion of your purchase should be returned to the buyer, or two they have some sort of vault system where people who have purchased the digital content can keep their things watch delete redownload to their hearts content. But people who haven’t purchased wont have an option to buy the digital product due to the change in their legal agreements.

The good thing is: Everything may only get offered through the internet at some point. And you don't get a regular way of owning something offline. But when you can consume it at some point, that means you can copy or record it for yourself. I don't trust in online content to be there for me for eternity. • special RU-vid videos, I download and store them • music I can't copy, I play it to the computer and record a new audio file there • movies and shows from streaming services, play it from one computer and record it on another via HDMI grabber You don't need physical media, but you need to have the media in some standard format on a personal drive. That is what I do, because even before everything went internet, I wanted to make sure, nobody could take stuff back.

I have a few games on Steam that were delisted because of trademark issues. They can't be bought anymore, but I can still play and download them whenever I want.

my stance on piracy has always been that if its available to purchase on your platform, then its immoral to pirate it but if its no longer available for purchase or not available on your platform (Nintendo) then its very much perfectly justified IMO to pirate it, the company doesn't want your money, otherwise they wouldnt take away your ability to buy the game right?

Discovery is just as much to blame on this if they weren't ok with renewing this setup. It's just to further that none of these companies are ok per this point, and why the copyright and DRM laws we have in place per this point are archaic, and need to be looked at by people that know what's going on. People in office not knowing that Facebook makes money through ads are embarrassing at this rate.

Weren't you just on the other side of the fence? Bro hahahah

omg I used to love mini disc back in the day

welcome to the high seas friend. You won't regret it. Just make sure you never let corporations pull you back to land, no matter how convenient they make it seem or how much they try to guilt trip you.

Those who purchased and can't access their content should be allowed to download and rip it to physical media.

I love the robust style thumbnail and outro.

The saying is "we'll own nothing, but will be happy."

Until there’s laws in place to ensure digital ownership and ensure companies make their products available to you in a reasonable manner, piracy will continue to be the moral option

This is why I collect physical media. Especially older games and Blu-ray/DVDS.

You're gonna love my JVC

5:00 yoooooo lmao!! 😂😂😂

I love the timing of this AFTER customers just bought a bunch of this stuff on Black Friday. The digital only future is over now. So many people are either going to double dip or wait for physical items to go on sale or just pirate even more!

As Jim Sterling said. It's not Piracy, it's reclamation.

People have asked me since back when "digital copies" of movies first came out why I would bother getting discs after the digital became a new norm. This is exactly why. I saw this coming from the beginning and warned them that any number of things, from individual IPs getting sold to entire studios getting absorbed through corporate mergers, can end up taking away what they would pay for. I'd rather have to get a new shelf every so often for an ever-expanding collection than risk that.

I said this 12 years ago when I first lost all the music I bought on iTunes because I swapped to android and couldn't access it. Then when consoles started selling games for $99 digital and $79 physical, plus if I didn't like the game I could only get refund for physical games (within 7days, no questions asked). When I finished it I could resell the physical copy for $20 less, but digital I was stuck with. It was ALWAYS an anti-consumer movement.

Well said Rich. I hope you don't get in trouble for this, I hope you profit a lot from this video and it becomes viral. No one has the balls today what you said.

Christopher Nolan did an interview about the dangers of everything Digital i read an article that someone wrote on how they prefer physical and here's why they went looking to watch Cocoon (1985) one of the greatest 80's movies and it's nowhere on digital at all it was taken off a couple years back but as he said in the article he goes thank god i have it on dvd i can watch it anytime i want. i thought EXACTLY which is why i still buy dvd's, bluray's and 4K and physical video game releases as well.

Now you're making more sense to me bro!

I'm with you. But I do have some digital items in certain places but I have paid literally 1/10 the cost for each item these items because I already knew what was going to happen in the future.

After this generation, I'll never buy another console again. I will emulate or hack other objects that can provide me the effect of gaming I want. I own physical media from VHS, to DVD, to Atari 2600 carts to NES, SNES, GenASSis, NSIXTYWHORE (and I have an all games on 1 cart for my 64 and my SNES absolutely legendary) all the way up to the current generation of gaming. I have over 200 switch titles. I don't buy digital anything and me and my wife/family don't have one subscription service we pay into. That is the model th0at 0every form of entertainment is going into.... subscription service. Never truly manufacture a physical good, siphon your pocket book for eternity, and choose what you can and can't watch... and oh yea making you repurchase products. People are so lazy that they will just keep throwing bones to these companies and not take the ARRRRRR PIRAAARRRCCCYYYY route.... I will not do that and will be fully swash bucklin on a gang plank somewhere on the open waves :D

Piracy is your friend. 🏴‍☠

Rich I knew you where hiding that birdy pirate inside 🤣😂

There we go!

The critically acclaimed "Mr Robot" series was recently removed from Amazon prime video in Latin America, removing content without any other option to view it really makes you consider looking to piracy on a different way

Respect for not backing down, Rich

Damn I should do that minidisc thing too sounds fun

You are so right on so many levels about that

Good thing that Sony has made enemies of a huge chunk of their fan-base. Without Sony, the players would have never seen how garbage Sony has become.

This is why the things I care about are on physical media. I have my TV shows I want on DVD and have physical books. True, I probably won't be able to buy them at Best Buy or Walmart in the future, but there's always ebay

I have a large collection of movies on VHS and DVD and they can never take that away from me.

Just imagine if when VHS got discontinued if all the studios started breaking into people's houses to, "Get their tapes back."

I’ve always loved piracy remember them limewire days

How about a law that forces digital content providers to either send a physical copy of the removed purchased digital content, or refund at least half of the money spent on the purchase? By the way, I agree with pirating, but only if you're downloading a copy of digital content that you paid for and was cancelled. That way you're downloading content that is already legally yours, only it comes from another source.

at the very least with games if it doesn't say 'internet download required like it does with Jedi Survivor, then at the very least the 1.0 is on the disc, the game is still there, and I've been building a massive collection since

My neighbor realized that after she switch from a 4K cable box to RU-vid TV on a Amazon 4K Firestick. She lost about $600 in movies she "purchased" through Comcast/Xfinity on demand.