I’ve moved from Russia, where torrents are pretty popular and only recently were mitigated by Steam, to a Nordic country. I don’t intend on breaking the law, because my residence is temporary and I have funds to buy games, but I wonder if any of these things found in Russia or other Eastern European countries are accepted by people in the Nordics:
- Local torrent trackers and torrenting in general
- “Unofficial” streaming services
- Fan translations
- Renting and exchanging games
- Account sharing
- Selling and installing hardware hacks (e.g. Nintendo Switch homebrew chips)
…so I don’t meet confused glances when I mention these Russian “customs” when chatting with locals. Mentioning specific services is not required, of course, I’m just trying to read the atmosphere.
Well, this answer is basically what I was looking for. So piracy is frowned upon in general public and shouldn’t be discussed outside people “in the loop”, but some mild elements like account sharing are acceptable. Thanks.
Eh, torrenting is fairly common here in Norway. No one in tech circles will raise an eyebrow if you pirate anything for private use, and most outside of tech circles won’t care. It is a bit more frowned upon for using in a business, so that’s a gotcha.
As a Swede, I can confirm what Joakim wrote. Pretty much the same deal here. General pirating isn’t a big deal really and is usually pretty safe to discuss in an informal setting. It’s like speeding. It’s really common, but maybe don’t brag about it? Oh, don’t do much speeding in Finland. Joakim will tell you why. 😀