well anyway. the copyright system exists to commodify art and expression and process it into more money for larger companies, and it is actively detrimental to efforts for preservation, open education, and creation. everyone reading this is morally obligated to hoard and share data because we live in a world that is hostile to the idea that books or music or movies or scholarship have inherent value independent of a DRM stamp and ticket price. btw fuck hachette, harpercollins, wiley and penguin random house.
Get yourself an external hard drive or two and just start saving. The internet is not forever. Things are going to disappear, or (more likely) become harder and harder to search for, and more and more costly to access.
When did you last go looking for an older movie, only to realise it was unavailable on any streaming service and unavailable to buy? Restricted access and false scarcity are the only ways corporations can inflate and justify prices for digital content. In an era when we can carry entire libraries around on a phone, there is no reason to let these for-profit organisations control access to the wealth of human culture.
1TB of storage costs about $30-50 depending on the drive. Let’s say an average high quality movie rip is 1.5GB. That’s space for nearly 700 movies. The average ebook is around 2MB. That’s space for 500,000 books. The Library of Alexandria was generously estimated to house 400,000 manuscripts. You can beat the Library of Alexandria, in your apartment, for $30-50. Start right now.
if this isn’t enough to convince you, consider the satisfaction you will get from being the fucking chad in your group chat who’s like “yeah I can get you that” any time anyone is looking for anything. it’s real and it gets you maidens, take it from me.
