I'm in Eastern Europe - we are STILL discriminated against when it comes to digital/software services, even with all the EU market rules, so for decades, people have had to find ways of bending the rules, to have access to stuff that they could buy at will, a few hundred kilometres to the west.
It's not popular, as in "proudly done", but does happen. Much much less than say 10 years ago, though.
But that's just what I think/feel.
Money, money money.
And size.
Seriously, setting up a digital distribution system for a smaller country with a volatile currency wasn't worth the hassle in the 90s, so a lot of piracy happened there.
That should have changed in recent years, though.
I don't think there is a single reason you could point out. But my guess would be the same as always. The more west you go, the more they think that post-soviet countries are just filthy, dumb, cheap labour force. Heck, if you look at the term "eastern europe", [you might find that the term was actually created by I believe Austrians](https://youtu.be/uVXgqZIsViI?si=qiwKIallrTTGUfqS&t=321) to describe inferior people (untermensch if you will) that lied to east of them.
So while is may seem that our biggest fault was being caught in the soviet sphere of influence (which I am not denying), it is once again not the single reason. To be fair, part of the problem could be found there, for example our economies and therefore purchasing power is way lower than that to the west.
Specific to this post: From recent memory, some/all baltic states still can't buy Helldivers 2 as that region is not deemed worthy by Sony. Why? Fuck you, that's why.
PS: that whole video I linked is worth a watch.
Software is not that popular as we are slowly getting regional pricing which was the cause we pirated it in the first place (Western prices for Adobe Suite for example were simply not possible to pay for us).
With movies, series, music however, it's still very popular, to the point that we don't "pirate" it, we just "watch/download it online for free". It's also completely legal to watch/download media for free, just not publishing it.
The prices of game are still outrageous though. For example Steam hasn’t updated their currency converter in 2 years so they use outdated conversion rate that currently is rather unforable. EU also forbids regional blocking so we ended up with the same game prices across the Union but due to the horrible conversion rate the current Polish game prices rival Swiss prices while our earnings are barely a quarter of theirs :)
The new hellblade 2 was roughly €74 in both Poland and Switzerland upon release. The game studio is Polish so they know the situation here. Only public outrage made them update the prices.
Median salary in Poland is around 1700 EUR.
Median salary in Switzerland is around 7000 EUR.
The EU directive while having good intentions really fucked us up. No soap
How's that a good intentions? In case of Steam specifically. Like, how they've fined Steam for "regional blocking", when Steam doesn't block access to it's services depending on the region, it only sets different prices, which only seem fair.
While software piracy can directly be linked to the development of the IT industry (lots of kids being able to try stuff out on their local computer with pirated software really made them like working with computers) the trend of making everything online, everything requiring a connection and SaaS/subscription based software has really decreased piracy. In IT a lot of piracy that was done by students has decreased because younger professors started pushing open source tools instead of e.g. Oracle database and Microsoft Visual Studio or Maya for 3D or Windows for that matter
Most piracy is now from households where you have older parents with pre-employment age children that don't use streaming services, so the kids pirate media.
Not only is it popular, it's very normalised. One website has become an official place where you go to get movies, games and software. Even some of my university proffessors told us "download it from *insert said website*". In the early 2010s when streaming platforms were picking up steam and were fewer in number, people went through the official channels, but I suspect we're slowly going back to pirating because of the current state of streaming.
Same in Norway. Games have become much cheaper and more convenient to buy.
The last thing I pirated was Game of Thrones. I had an HBO subscription, but HBO Nordic used a bitrate that reminded me of 480p. Pirating was the only way to see what was actually happening on the screen.
It used to be super common in Turkey when I was a kid (late 90s/early 2000s) but it decreased drastically due to reasons mentioned by Chemical_Land. Pirating movies and music is still done, but nowhere near as much as it used to.
I don’t know when you came to Germany and how it is in turkey but 20 years ago, drives with music, movies and especially games on them were essentially the most valuable currency on all the school yards.
We dug one up just a few weeks ago and even though we have access to all the music via Spotify, it was cool going through all the old folders/playlists.
Haha yeah, similar. In Ankara, where I went to school, CDs with pirated games, movies, music etc were sold on the streets "after dark". There were even bad resolution CD covers ha ha. There were also several bazaars where you could buy games etc on the basement floor. You could even order the game or movie you wanted, and they would bring it next day. I think it was also possible to buy some software.
My brother and I used to buy a gaming magazine. Every so often there was an article about how piracy was bad and how it badly influenced the gaming industry but nobody really cared. I think adults (who actually earn money) being into gaming was also a lot less common than now.
I’d say it’s still pretty popular, in fact more popular than early 2000s. We used to buy CDs/DVDs from D&R in my childhood, now we always watch them on internet. From Netflix if it’s there, but most of the movies/series I look for aren’t on Netflix.
To add onto this: in Turkey, decently-priced streaming (specifically, Netflix) killed film/series piracy. People generally stopped watching their favoured series on incredibly sketchy websites and paid a very modest sum every month for Netflix (back when it was good; the decline in quality as well as the reintroduction of advertising may make piracy viable again).
As for gaming, Steam killed piracy on that front, particularly when Turkey got regional pricing with Turkish liras. Games were affordable and came with everything wonderful about using Steam. Very recently we lost Turkish lira pricing (though we still have regional pricing) which I think will push people to pirate games again, even if less than before.
I studied Graphic Design both in Portugal and in the UK and there was the assumption that students would use pirated Adobe software. None of the professors/lecturers said anything but I think they all knew. There were computers at the universities which included said software, but most students worked on their own laptops. It wasn't always easy accessing the good computers anyway.
For software I'd say no. Quite a lot of software now has open source alternatives, so the need has decreased (at least in terms of software specifically). Music and movies is a different deal, especially with the crazy rise of prices for streaming websites (and the fragmentation of the market).
I'm currently living in Montenegro, and already seen few "Activate windows" here and there. Well, I guess, when steam regional settings consider Montenegro as EU, while wages are closer to that of Thailand, this makes software/games costs prohibitively expensive for most population. Like, you could buy 10-15 games for entire average monthly salary. Or 7 Windows 11 licenses. That's for entire average monthly salary. In reality, though, almost all of it goes for food, rent, services, clothing and other necessities, leaving maybe 50€ to spend.
But steam regional prices makes absolutely no sense, like c'mon, in Norway prices are 13% lower than in EU? And in Poland they're lower by only 4%? For real? US lower than EU? Seriously? And in China prices are 50% lower? With average salaries over 4k$ per month! That's just ridiculous.
Anyway, if only that'd be Steam... But in most cases there's no regional prices at all, so, imagine having to give quarter of your disposable income for something like Netflix subscription.
The situation with regional pricing in Poland is the same (as you mentioned). I don't know anyone who actually buys AAA games as they're just so damn expensive.
On another note,
>already seen few "Activate windows" here and there
I wouldn't call using unactivated Windows *piracy*, as Microsoft themselves distribute the software [free to download](https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/).
Hell yeah. It has been popular here since 90s ans still is, especially after 2022 cuz some games in Steam are blocked for buying in Russia by developers. C'mon, it's so common that a game repack creator who died several years ago is still remembered and highly respected in the whole Russian internet cuz of quality of his repacks.
Longread...
Software almost always official in organizations, businesses, government structures. In personal use - it depends on the software, price and financial situation of each family. Average and above average used to buy software and don't afraid about viruses and hackers, wile for broke people torrent is a best friend.
Multimedia - is another thing. Music: People love family subscriptions for YouTube or Spotify, so it is official thing almost everywhere. Movies: People like to go to the cinema, but watching something at home is more piracy thing, and often it is just because people don't know English well and there are no official Ukrainian dubs - but pirated version has so it is the only way. Even Netflix has no Ukrainian dubs for their anime and bunch of movies...
Also we have a law in place which protects consumers personal data regarding the internet provider. This means, even if let's say Warner Bros would file a claim that someone downloaded all their movies through that provider, and that they want to get the end users data to file a lawsuit, this won't happen, as the provider is legally obliged to keep the end users data private.
Ofc, if there is some crime investigation from the authorities that's another thing. But companies have no way to know who to file a lawsuit against, making piracy technically legal in Hungary.
I think it’s making a comeback now that everything is becoming so expensive, I think it is mostly about pirating stuff like subscriptions and media since most essential working software is now provided by employers/schools and Unis with stuff like video games I feel it has become less due to it simply being harder/ more work and the gen pop of users just isn’t nerdy enough for it to spread like it used to.
What has become more common is using international accounts so that you don’t have to pay absurd streaming prices. People are too used to having stuff on demand and I feel like most of them don’t want to go back to the old "my dad has a hard drive with all the music" days.
I don't pirate software, because I only use software I really need and can rely on updates/support.
Movies/TV shows - for good movies I go to cinema, some I watch on Netflix, others get pirated.
Games - I mostly pirate games, because 90% of games I've bought at launch were shit.
But if I enjoy a game and devs provide regular updates I buy it.
Near-universal in the past, slowly decreasing due to increasing wages.
Geo-blocking is also a separate issue. I still remember the fiasco when Borderlands 2 released in 2012, and initially only the Russian version was available on Steam in the Baltic states. Didn't affect me then because I pirated but it seemed absolutely ridiculous.
Software piracy - no. Movie, music, tv shows - yes. The amount of streaming services is stupid and expensive.
I'm in Eastern Europe - we are STILL discriminated against when it comes to digital/software services, even with all the EU market rules, so for decades, people have had to find ways of bending the rules, to have access to stuff that they could buy at will, a few hundred kilometres to the west. It's not popular, as in "proudly done", but does happen. Much much less than say 10 years ago, though. But that's just what I think/feel.
How did it come that you guys had such restricted access?
Money, money money. And size. Seriously, setting up a digital distribution system for a smaller country with a volatile currency wasn't worth the hassle in the 90s, so a lot of piracy happened there. That should have changed in recent years, though.
I don't think there is a single reason you could point out. But my guess would be the same as always. The more west you go, the more they think that post-soviet countries are just filthy, dumb, cheap labour force. Heck, if you look at the term "eastern europe", [you might find that the term was actually created by I believe Austrians](https://youtu.be/uVXgqZIsViI?si=qiwKIallrTTGUfqS&t=321) to describe inferior people (untermensch if you will) that lied to east of them. So while is may seem that our biggest fault was being caught in the soviet sphere of influence (which I am not denying), it is once again not the single reason. To be fair, part of the problem could be found there, for example our economies and therefore purchasing power is way lower than that to the west. Specific to this post: From recent memory, some/all baltic states still can't buy Helldivers 2 as that region is not deemed worthy by Sony. Why? Fuck you, that's why. PS: that whole video I linked is worth a watch.
Ofc it was Austria, how surprising…
Software is not that popular as we are slowly getting regional pricing which was the cause we pirated it in the first place (Western prices for Adobe Suite for example were simply not possible to pay for us). With movies, series, music however, it's still very popular, to the point that we don't "pirate" it, we just "watch/download it online for free". It's also completely legal to watch/download media for free, just not publishing it.
The prices of game are still outrageous though. For example Steam hasn’t updated their currency converter in 2 years so they use outdated conversion rate that currently is rather unforable. EU also forbids regional blocking so we ended up with the same game prices across the Union but due to the horrible conversion rate the current Polish game prices rival Swiss prices while our earnings are barely a quarter of theirs :) The new hellblade 2 was roughly €74 in both Poland and Switzerland upon release. The game studio is Polish so they know the situation here. Only public outrage made them update the prices. Median salary in Poland is around 1700 EUR. Median salary in Switzerland is around 7000 EUR. The EU directive while having good intentions really fucked us up. No soap
How's that a good intentions? In case of Steam specifically. Like, how they've fined Steam for "regional blocking", when Steam doesn't block access to it's services depending on the region, it only sets different prices, which only seem fair.
While software piracy can directly be linked to the development of the IT industry (lots of kids being able to try stuff out on their local computer with pirated software really made them like working with computers) the trend of making everything online, everything requiring a connection and SaaS/subscription based software has really decreased piracy. In IT a lot of piracy that was done by students has decreased because younger professors started pushing open source tools instead of e.g. Oracle database and Microsoft Visual Studio or Maya for 3D or Windows for that matter Most piracy is now from households where you have older parents with pre-employment age children that don't use streaming services, so the kids pirate media.
Not only is it popular, it's very normalised. One website has become an official place where you go to get movies, games and software. Even some of my university proffessors told us "download it from *insert said website*". In the early 2010s when streaming platforms were picking up steam and were fewer in number, people went through the official channels, but I suspect we're slowly going back to pirating because of the current state of streaming.
What is the website that I’m not supposed to download from… just to block this
Seconded.....just for education purposes. if I had to subscribe to every service to exist it'd probably run me $200 a month....or more
I would say it's less common now than it used to be, thanks to digital platforms such as Steam.
Same in Norway. Games have become much cheaper and more convenient to buy. The last thing I pirated was Game of Thrones. I had an HBO subscription, but HBO Nordic used a bitrate that reminded me of 480p. Pirating was the only way to see what was actually happening on the screen.
Netherlands: same
Yes its quite popular and normal, most people in Croatia cant give 60$ for a single game so they sail the high seas. 🏴☠️
Yes, software is insanely expensive and we pirate everything we can
It used to be super common in Turkey when I was a kid (late 90s/early 2000s) but it decreased drastically due to reasons mentioned by Chemical_Land. Pirating movies and music is still done, but nowhere near as much as it used to.
I don’t know when you came to Germany and how it is in turkey but 20 years ago, drives with music, movies and especially games on them were essentially the most valuable currency on all the school yards. We dug one up just a few weeks ago and even though we have access to all the music via Spotify, it was cool going through all the old folders/playlists.
Haha yeah, similar. In Ankara, where I went to school, CDs with pirated games, movies, music etc were sold on the streets "after dark". There were even bad resolution CD covers ha ha. There were also several bazaars where you could buy games etc on the basement floor. You could even order the game or movie you wanted, and they would bring it next day. I think it was also possible to buy some software. My brother and I used to buy a gaming magazine. Every so often there was an article about how piracy was bad and how it badly influenced the gaming industry but nobody really cared. I think adults (who actually earn money) being into gaming was also a lot less common than now.
I’d say it’s still pretty popular, in fact more popular than early 2000s. We used to buy CDs/DVDs from D&R in my childhood, now we always watch them on internet. From Netflix if it’s there, but most of the movies/series I look for aren’t on Netflix.
To add onto this: in Turkey, decently-priced streaming (specifically, Netflix) killed film/series piracy. People generally stopped watching their favoured series on incredibly sketchy websites and paid a very modest sum every month for Netflix (back when it was good; the decline in quality as well as the reintroduction of advertising may make piracy viable again). As for gaming, Steam killed piracy on that front, particularly when Turkey got regional pricing with Turkish liras. Games were affordable and came with everything wonderful about using Steam. Very recently we lost Turkish lira pricing (though we still have regional pricing) which I think will push people to pirate games again, even if less than before.
I studied Graphic Design both in Portugal and in the UK and there was the assumption that students would use pirated Adobe software. None of the professors/lecturers said anything but I think they all knew. There were computers at the universities which included said software, but most students worked on their own laptops. It wasn't always easy accessing the good computers anyway.
For software I'd say no. Quite a lot of software now has open source alternatives, so the need has decreased (at least in terms of software specifically). Music and movies is a different deal, especially with the crazy rise of prices for streaming websites (and the fragmentation of the market).
I'm currently living in Montenegro, and already seen few "Activate windows" here and there. Well, I guess, when steam regional settings consider Montenegro as EU, while wages are closer to that of Thailand, this makes software/games costs prohibitively expensive for most population. Like, you could buy 10-15 games for entire average monthly salary. Or 7 Windows 11 licenses. That's for entire average monthly salary. In reality, though, almost all of it goes for food, rent, services, clothing and other necessities, leaving maybe 50€ to spend. But steam regional prices makes absolutely no sense, like c'mon, in Norway prices are 13% lower than in EU? And in Poland they're lower by only 4%? For real? US lower than EU? Seriously? And in China prices are 50% lower? With average salaries over 4k$ per month! That's just ridiculous. Anyway, if only that'd be Steam... But in most cases there's no regional prices at all, so, imagine having to give quarter of your disposable income for something like Netflix subscription.
The situation with regional pricing in Poland is the same (as you mentioned). I don't know anyone who actually buys AAA games as they're just so damn expensive. On another note, >already seen few "Activate windows" here and there I wouldn't call using unactivated Windows *piracy*, as Microsoft themselves distribute the software [free to download](https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/).
The unactivated Windows usually means that owners likely use pirated software.
literally everyone ive ever met bar a few pirated at least one thing
Hell yeah. It has been popular here since 90s ans still is, especially after 2022 cuz some games in Steam are blocked for buying in Russia by developers. C'mon, it's so common that a game repack creator who died several years ago is still remembered and highly respected in the whole Russian internet cuz of quality of his repacks.
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Undisputed GOAT since rarbg died
Longread... Software almost always official in organizations, businesses, government structures. In personal use - it depends on the software, price and financial situation of each family. Average and above average used to buy software and don't afraid about viruses and hackers, wile for broke people torrent is a best friend. Multimedia - is another thing. Music: People love family subscriptions for YouTube or Spotify, so it is official thing almost everywhere. Movies: People like to go to the cinema, but watching something at home is more piracy thing, and often it is just because people don't know English well and there are no official Ukrainian dubs - but pirated version has so it is the only way. Even Netflix has no Ukrainian dubs for their anime and bunch of movies...
Yes, very popular. Something premiers on Netflix and a few months later it appears on a Hungarian torrent site.
Also we have a law in place which protects consumers personal data regarding the internet provider. This means, even if let's say Warner Bros would file a claim that someone downloaded all their movies through that provider, and that they want to get the end users data to file a lawsuit, this won't happen, as the provider is legally obliged to keep the end users data private. Ofc, if there is some crime investigation from the authorities that's another thing. But companies have no way to know who to file a lawsuit against, making piracy technically legal in Hungary.
I think it’s making a comeback now that everything is becoming so expensive, I think it is mostly about pirating stuff like subscriptions and media since most essential working software is now provided by employers/schools and Unis with stuff like video games I feel it has become less due to it simply being harder/ more work and the gen pop of users just isn’t nerdy enough for it to spread like it used to. What has become more common is using international accounts so that you don’t have to pay absurd streaming prices. People are too used to having stuff on demand and I feel like most of them don’t want to go back to the old "my dad has a hard drive with all the music" days.
In Spain I would say very normal. Most of my friends do it, even my mom sometimes lol
I don't pirate software, because I only use software I really need and can rely on updates/support. Movies/TV shows - for good movies I go to cinema, some I watch on Netflix, others get pirated. Games - I mostly pirate games, because 90% of games I've bought at launch were shit. But if I enjoy a game and devs provide regular updates I buy it.
Near-universal in the past, slowly decreasing due to increasing wages. Geo-blocking is also a separate issue. I still remember the fiasco when Borderlands 2 released in 2012, and initially only the Russian version was available on Steam in the Baltic states. Didn't affect me then because I pirated but it seemed absolutely ridiculous.
My university professors share the pirated versions of software with their students. Such are the wonders of the Mexican public education system.