I’m not arguing against piracy here. I partake in it myself too.

I don’t really see that difference there. Of course the difference in scale is massive when you compare a multi-billion company doing it to an individual, but what about the harm when everyone does it as individuals versus one big company doing it? I don’t think the difference matters anymore at that point.

Doing something morally wrong can’t be justified just because only a small number of people are doing it. You wouldn’t use that defense for any other immoral behavior either. Me dumping my car’s old motor oil into the woods is still bad even if I’m the only one in my country who does it - and if I then go ahead criticizing a drilling company for causing an oil spill, I’d be just as much of a hypocrite.

That at least would be a morally consistent stance and I have no issue with that. I’m talking about the people who criticize them for pirating while doing it themselves too.

they don’t earn anything with it.

That’s not entirely true either. There’s no practical difference between saving 50 bucks and earning 50 bucks. In both cases you’re left with more money to spend. Piracy is equally a financial decision even if it’s just for personal use. You’re saving what ever amount it would’ve cost to buy that media.

I’m using theft an an example due to it being the closest equivalent. The point still stands: if it’s wrong for an company to do it at scale, then it’s wrong when an idividual does it too.

There are edge cases where you could argue piracy is morally justifiable. Those aren’t what I’m talking about here, though. I’m talking about movies, TV series, games, and software that people pirate not because they couldn’t get it elsewhere or couldn’t afford it - but simply because they want it for free. That’s the vast majority of online piracy.

The difference is only in scale. Stealing is stealing independent of if it’s for personal use or not.

You can keep the insults to yourself.

It’s virtually never the case that people genuinely can’t afford it or that it’s simply not available for purchase anywhere. In the vast majority of cases, people pirate because they don’t want to pay. It’s a financial decision that leaves them no ground to stand on and criticize others for doing the same.

Stealing is wrong whether it’s for personal or business use. Which one is more wrong is besides the point.

I’m getting the feeling that the average Lemming is a pro-piracy advocate only for as long as it’s them financially benefiting from it but the script interestingly flips when a company they don’t like does the same thing.

If money wasn’t an issue, there’s be no reason to pirate anything. It’s a financial decision. There’s no practical difference between earning fifty bucks and saving that much - in both cases you’re left with 50 more bucks to spend.

I was facetiously suggesting they use one to hide the bias already baked into the article - not to add anything that isn’t there.

Perhaps they should’ve ran this article through an LLM aswell to at least try and hide the glaringly obvious bias.

Just give me the facts and let me make up my own mind about how I feel of something.

I don’t disagree but my point was that usually with news like this it’s someone trying to slip in video game footage as real to potray their military more capable than it really is or to claim that something was hit when it actually wasn’t. I think it’s safe to assume that this is what most people imagine happened here too but this is different. It’s just a PSA - I’m not defending what they’re doing.

My diesel emergency storage canisters are ripe for rotation anyway

It is real but probably not what people think. They’re not exactly hiding the fact that they’re using footage from a game.

The contrast between the US and Canada is quite stark considering how similar countries they are on the surface.

And I don’t mean that as an insult to the Canadians!

fuels battery fires

Not true. They put out burning electric cars with water all the time. The issue is that it usually won’t stop the thermal runaway reaction - it just pauses it. The car might re-ignite on its own later. That’s why my local fire station has a container full of water that they submerge the car in to cool the battery pack down and actually stop the reaction.

According to various tests, water has been found to have the most effective cooling effect. On the other hand, different reports have stated that extinguishing battery packs has in the worst cases taken several hours and required several cubic meters of extinguishing/cooling water.

Especially in Central Europe, in certain areas, so-called extinguishing platforms are commonly used for extinguishing and cooling electric vehicle battery fires. In the extinguishing platform method, the car is submerged in water. The advantage of this method is that it effectively prevents the fire from spreading, and the contaminated extinguishing water can also be collected. In the method, all battery cells - including undamaged ones - go into short circuit, and as a result, no combustion energy remains in the battery pack.

In practice, this means at least several days of submersion to ensure that all battery cells have short-circuited and that the battery’s charge has been completely discharged. As the fleet of electric vehicles becomes more widespread, it is worth considering whether submerging the vehicle is an efficient and appropriate method.

Source (in Finnish)

Is the lesson here to drive diesel then? It doesn’t burn on it’s own like gasoline or lithium-ion batteries does.

I have no issue with an online service knowing my age for as long as that’s all they know and will ever know about me.

I’m not one to call people names with the intention of hurting their feelings, and I don’t even believe in free will to begin with. But if I were to call someone an idiot, it wouldn’t come from the assumption that they actively choose to be one or that they could choose otherwise. No, they’re helplessly an idiot - and I’m just making a factual statement about the world.