Is it wrong to pirate movies […] and load onto my Plex server?

no

It’s completely down to your opinion. Legally I would guess that you’re not allowed to do it, but nowadays we live in a hellscape where we own nothing so I wouldn’t base your moral compass off of the rules that corporations set. Personally if I’ve already bought it somewhere it is mine. They’re lucky I even purchased one copy, they’re not getting anything else from me.

IMO I don’t see the problem, I see it as a personal backup of a media you legally licenced. Unless you resell the original without getting rid of the copy, or give a copy to someone who doesn’t own a license, it’s fair game.

It is never wrong to be a pirate.

Since you’re talking about “wrong”, rather than “illegal”, you seem to approach this from a moral angle instead of a legal one. And when it comes to morality, that’s something you can only define for yourself.

Personally I don’t see any problems there, nor do I see a problem with pirating unlicensed content. If I would never have paid to watch a certain movie, the rightsholder doesn’t make a factual loss. They can cry about opportunity costs all day long, but if it’s not a “cinema vs. piracy” but a “piracy vs. nothing at all” discussion, it’s pretty much a moot point.

I’m gonna just cut thru the larger spiel I would normally give.

No, it is not wrong. You paid for it in the sense of reasonable expectations of ownership. That means being able to watch it in as convenient a method as if you’d bought the VHS back in the day. While this may not line up with legal definitions of licenses, fuck them. Replace “file” or “stream” with “tape” and it becomes crystal clear.

Is it wrong to pirate {anything}

No.

You’re asking this in a community that’s specifically about doing piracy. Pretty hard to take your question seriously in this context.

Asking if pirating something is wrong in a pro pirating group…

It’s just a little less bad than murder.

yeah go for it! Do what you want. You already gave them money.

According to their ToS:

You are granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited right and license to access and use the Content solely for your private non-commercial viewing.

You must not transfer, copy or display Content except as permitted in this Vudu Policy.

They basically don’t allow you to download any movie to watch them outside their app. You are not actually “purchasing” the movies, you simply “purchasing” access to watch those movies on Vudu.

As for morality of downloading movies you already “purchased”, consider this quote I came across a little while ago: “Is piracy really stealing if paying isn’t owning?”

You have to decide if you have a duty to follow licensing agreements or not. Most folks here do not believe they do.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-deontological/#DeoThe

In the US: you are legally allowed to have a backup copy if any media you have (digital -> physical, physical -> digital, or any other match up). Since you own the physical copy of these movies, this means you’re allowed to have the digital one as a backup.

Your physical disks are encrypted, and breaking said encryption to make a copy is technically illegal. Downloading the files from somewhere is not illegal, but sharing them is.

With all that said, if you own the disk, and either download or torrent without seeding, you’re well within your rights legally.

Your other option is to use Handbrake or another disk ripping software, along with dvdcss or aacs and rip your disks yourself.

Why are you asking is piracy “wrong” on a piracy forum?

Arrr, you’d better watch this to get a more nuanced perspective!

Only if you brag of it in Lemmy.world, that way the police will catch you /s

Youve paid your fee, I see nothing morally questionable in what you are doing.

I'm with you on this one, you've bought it, you should be allowed to do as you please with it.

This is a corporate run late stage capitalism hell hole. Do whatever you want that doesn’t hurt people, unless they’re bad people.

Do you own the movie? Or does the studio own you?

Therein lies the answer.

Legally, it is illegal. Ethically, I think you're fine. If you pay for something you should be allowed to use the thing.

I feel like that basic interpretation of the law probably predates the code of Hammurabi.

Ethically spotless, yet still a crime.

nothing is wrong with piracy

The real crime is paying for content to begin with /s

No, because artificial scarcity is immoral.

I think it’s more wrong how writers make pennies while the fat suits at Hollywood make even more absurd amounts of money. Fuck them. Pirate.

Intellectual property doesn’t exist, so no, not wrong at all.

There’s a couple angles you can take on this. My favourite is from the dotCommunist Manifesto:

Society confronts the simple fact that when everyone can possess every intellectual work of beauty and utility—reaping all the human value of every increase of knowledge—at the same cost that any one person can possess them, it is no longer moral to exclude.

Essentially, this argues that the unethical position is the one that creates the false scarcity.

Another less extreme position would be that many countries allow for exemptions for format shifting: if you buy a CD with some music, you’re legally permitted to rip it so long as you don’t distribute copies. One could argue that someone in your position is operating within the spirit of these laws… provided that you haven’t torrented the videos since that necessarily includes some partial distribution.

Finally, the least generous interpretation would point out that you didn’t buy the videos in the first place, but rather a licence to let Vudu stream them to you. Given that you don’t own anything, you’re not morally entitled to own it in a different format. This is why many people have rejected the streaming model.

As someone in camp #1, I think you’re a-ok ethically, but I thought you might want a broader perspective.

It’s never wrong to pirate movies.

Super illegal. Straight to super jail.