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0 pointsSebb7677y ago0 comments

> Stealing is taking property with the intention of permanently depriving the rightful owner of said property. > One cannot steal data by not watching ads because you can't deprive the owner of said data.

Well, it is. Spotify grants you the temporary license to play the copyrighted song for you listening to their ads. They _pay_ for the right to distribute that song. It's like taking something from a store and refusing to pay for it because "that store does not decide where my money goes".

> I am in fact entitled to decide what runs on my computer and spotify is entitled to decide who accesses theirs. If spotify closes accounts for not watching ads and I choose to block ads literally nobody is in the wrong. We are both exercising our respective rights.

Fully agreed.

> On net spotify will save money on bandwidth which is incredibly cheap to start with, gain a modicum of new subscribers, and shrink their supply of free users that are their primary source of paid users.

Well, as said above, they pay licensing fees and that is actually most of their business cost. I highly doubt that they loose many customers who would bring in any money with this move.

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4 comments · 1 top-level

michaelmrose7y ago· 3 in thread

Stealing is a term of art for the legal arena. Just like a million idiots who call their entire tower a cpu doesn't serve to redefine a technical term you "feeling" like not watching ads is stealing food from your mouth doesn't mean that it is.

There are a number of pieces of actual property involved but the user isn't carting off Spotify's servers and spotify isn't breaking into the users home and stealing their laptops.

What you do want to cart of is the users autonomy to manage how their actual property is used in service to an imaginary moral duty to be brainwashed by propoganda based on terms and conditions that we don't agree are a moral obligation.

You have a moral right to the actual money your users have agreed to pay you if you provide the agreed upon service.

The fact that you actually believe that you can buy their thoughts, their autonomy, their attention, and their time with your cheap crap doesn't mean if they opt not to give you those things you have been stolen from because those things were never for sale and you can't own them.

The best you can do is not do business if you feel like the deal isn't mutually beneficial. Take your ball and go home if you like but don't be dumb enough to call your users thieves for claiming unalienable rights to their own brains and machines.

Sebb767OP7y ago

Well, stealing is be defined as[0]:

> a: to take or appropriate without right or leave and with intent to keep or make use of wrongfully

Using Spotify without paying them, either directly or by watching ads, falls under that definition. The fact that there is no actual object being taken does not impact this.

If you create a great piece of software and I copy and then sell it, would you not consider it stealing? After all, you still have your copy.

Or, if a client contracts you to configure his network and then refuses to pay, is that not stealing your work? After all, you just used knowledge and time. Nothing stolen here, you still have your knowledge and you can surely make a copy of the configuration files :)

> The fact that you actually believe that you can buy their thoughts, their autonomy, their attention, and their time with your cheap crap doesn't mean if they opt not to give you those things you have been stolen from because those things were never for sale and you can't own them.

I don't believe you can buy their thoughts and I don't think Spotify attempts to. But you can definitely buy their time. That's exactly what you sell when you're employed.

> The best you can do is not do business if you feel like the deal isn't mutually beneficial. Take your ball and go home if you like but don't be dumb enough to call your users thieves for claiming unalienable rights to their own brains and machines.

Again, I totally agree. I would not use Spotify with Ads either. But if I'm not willing to fulfill my side of the deal, be it paying with time or money, I'm in no way entitled to their service.

[0] From: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/steal

michaelmrose7y ago

"But you can definitely buy their time. That's exactly what you sell when you're employed."

The relationship you have with your employees is the inverse of the relationship you have with your users. I think you don't understand the idea of entitlement anymore than stealing.

They aren't entitled to spotify if spotify doesn't want to do business with them but they are entitled to have a negative opinion about spotify and or spotify's actions.

The fact that an increasing share of spotify's users neither want to pay them or watch their ads is a failure on Spotify's part to capture those potential users and reliance on a business model that is fundamentally stupid.

The fact that ad supported multimedia worked for so long is not an indication of future longevity. Horses were a great method of transportation for longer.

michaelmrose7y ago

Ip infringement is indeed not stealing it is its own separate issue more akin to breach of contract than theft.

Intellectual property is virtually nothing like property.

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4 comments · 1 top-level

michaelmrose7y ago· 3 in thread

There are a number of pieces of actual property involved but the user isn't carting off Spotify's servers and spotify isn't breaking into the users home and stealing their laptops.

You have a moral right to the actual money your users have agreed to pay you if you provide the agreed upon service.

Sebb767OP7y ago

Well, stealing is be defined as[0]:

> a: to take or appropriate without right or leave and with intent to keep or make use of wrongfully

Using Spotify without paying them, either directly or by watching ads, falls under that definition. The fact that there is no actual object being taken does not impact this.

If you create a great piece of software and I copy and then sell it, would you not consider it stealing? After all, you still have your copy.

I don't believe you can buy their thoughts and I don't think Spotify attempts to. But you can definitely buy their time. That's exactly what you sell when you're employed.

Again, I totally agree. I would not use Spotify with Ads either. But if I'm not willing to fulfill my side of the deal, be it paying with time or money, I'm in no way entitled to their service.

[0] From: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/steal

michaelmrose7y ago

"But you can definitely buy their time. That's exactly what you sell when you're employed."

The relationship you have with your employees is the inverse of the relationship you have with your users. I think you don't understand the idea of entitlement anymore than stealing.

They aren't entitled to spotify if spotify doesn't want to do business with them but they are entitled to have a negative opinion about spotify and or spotify's actions.

The fact that ad supported multimedia worked for so long is not an indication of future longevity. Horses were a great method of transportation for longer.

michaelmrose7y ago

Ip infringement is indeed not stealing it is its own separate issue more akin to breach of contract than theft.

Intellectual property is virtually nothing like property.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse