My gf and I have had discussions about teaching morals to kids. In that vein, I asked myself, would I teach piracy to my kids? Yes, it’s technically illegal and carries inherent risks. But so does teenage sex carry the risks of teenage pregnancy, and so we have an obligation to children to teach them how to practice safe sex. So, is it necessary to teach them how to stay safe in the sea? How to install adblockers, how to detect fake download sites that give you computer aids? Show them how to use a VPN and choosing the right one (a true pirate must always choose a VPN with port forwarding capabilities, so you can still seed) I feel like this is all valuable info we all learned as pirates the hard way, and valuable information to pass on to our kids.
I definitely want my kids to know about libgen. Want a book you want to read about? Wanna learn about dinosaurs from a college level textbook for whatever reason? Just go to libgen, son!
And I attribute most of my computer literacy and education to piracy, trying to install cracks to various games, trying to make games work, and modding the fuck out of skyrim as a young teenager. That, and also jailbreaking android phones. All the interesting things i’ve ever done with computers was probably against some BS terms of service.
So, is piracy something you would actively teach your kids? Sit them down and teach them how to install a Fallout 3 FitGirl repack? Or is this something you’d want them to figure out themselves?
Teaching how to do it safely might save their ass. And your own if they pirate at home.
- piracy is not theft
- “If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing.”
- morality and legality don’t always correlate
- a good adblocker is worth more than an antivirus, you should always be running one regardless of activity
Remember how many years ago antiviruses kept track of such types of malware as adware and spyware? When did you last see that kind of alert when seeing ad filled pages or when using software from facebook on your computer?
Antiviruses don’t worth shit today. Their only purpose is to delete your keygens on the basis that kEyGeNs ArE mOrE lIkElY tO hAvE a ViRuS.
Teaching kids good, healthy anticapitalist values is important. It’s also good to teach them some basic computing and privacy skills, because they’re not going to get that anywhere else. They’re going to be under lot of social peer pressure to have the latest phones and being connected on social media, consuming information from algorithms.They need to understand how to minimize the harm from Meta and the big tech.
Same applies to the copyright industry and their practices (along with corps who are heavily anti-repair like Apple) - they need to understand the exploitation model of capitalism and lobbying - from there, let them make their own choices.
Absolutely. My entire network is behind a VPN, so they can’t fuck up. Windows is banned in my household, so I’m not worried about malware. I’m not paying 20 bucks a month for limited access to the ever shrinking Netflix library, which I can’t even use behind a VPN or share with other people. Piracy is the only way forward.
Windows is banned in my household, so l’m not worried about malware.
This is a false sense of security and just because you’re not running Windows doesn’t mean you’re immune to everything and can let your defenses down. For example, KDE recently had to announce that downloading themes will execute arbitrary code and cited someone who had personal information deleted because of downloading a theme.
I knew I would get a comment about this. Yes, I absolutely know that Linux is not at all immune to malware, but the chances of finding Linux malware on a typical piracy website are very low. That’s why Anti-virus is unecessary on Linux.
well its a step up at least…
in regards to privacy using something like windows already has you fucked up. As opposed to something like using KDE which might rm -rf your system.
Speaking personally I don’t know if its something I’d bring up to them, but if the topic comes up naturally I’d be honest about doing it and my moral reasoning for doing so. If the kid shows an interest or a curiosity about it then we can sit down and I’d teach them my ways. I took some stupid risks while I was still learning that I’d like to spare them from taking. Besides as you said it is technically illegal and if they are going to do it then it’s best that they be doing it safe. Especially seeing as they would likely be doing it in your home.
How to install adblockers, how to detect fake download sites that give you computer aids? Show them how to use a VPN and choosing the right one (a true pirate must always choose a VPN with port forwarding capabilities, so you can still seed) I feel like this is all valuable info we all learned as pirates the hard way, and valuable information to pass on to our kids.
Absolutely, I would say whether you’re teaching piracy or not, those are essential things that everyone online must know about; it would be unethical to allow your kids to go online without that protection.
Doesn’t sound like an easy task, perhaps a good start would be teaching them how to tie knots and learn wind direction. Once they are old enough to travel book a vacation to somalia and introduce them to the place, that’s where most of piracy is going on these days
I’d never thought about this but when the time comes I’ll teach my sons, but hopefully they’ll tell me some new way I don’t know yet. Also a true pirate should check out Usenet.
Yes, when they’re older. I’d rather be the “dad, can you find this for me?” guy, and then when they’re older and start talking about wanting to set up their own Plex server or something I’ll show them how to do it, if they even want to. I would be perfectly happy being the perma media pirate for my family.
And what if they get a love letter because they were too stupid to practice safety?
I would not teach them safe piracy but rather safe computer literacy and usage.
Exactly like you said: How to spot fake ads or scams etc…
But if my child would like a book from XYZ and they would pirate it I would question the motive instead of getting it from, for example, a library.
Doing illegal shit out of convenience (like pirating a book instead of showering, getting out and enter a library searching for it) is still illegal. Even if you juat read what you want and put the book back in the shelf.I would also firewall the shit of the little buggers computer. Also no account with admin/sudo rights.
I will teach anyone who will listen.
No. I plan on treating it as other adult things. "Oh, you got into this? Well, here is how you protect yourself. "
Computer literacy wise? I hope my daughter gets the curiosity into it. Other things as well. More you know and understand, the better.
My mom introduced me to Napster. So at this point, it would be a family tradition.
It’s like sex education and education about drugs and alcohol. It’s necessary information for kids, even if you don’t want them to do it, because if they don’t know anything about those things, they’ll end up with lots of problems.
Teach them how, why and why not, be honest and then trust them to make an informed decision on their own
It’s not as though the existence and mechanisms of piracy are a coveted secret. There’s a decent chance that they’ll learn about and attempt it independently, and the method they learn about online might expose them to greater risk than if they did it with more consideration.
On that basis, I think that knowledge transfer is at worst harm reduction. If it’s immoral, which I don’t believe it is, then at the very least your intervention could prevent them from being preyed upon by some copyright troll company when they do it despite your silence or protestations.
Look here Junior in this family we practice safe piracy like God intended using VPN and a seedbox paid using bitcoin!
Let me start by showing you how to compile a kernel that supports WireGuard.
