At least for media, piracy websites have a more extensive catalogue (of course) but they also have better privacy which is crazy. And they also allow you to use ad blockers. Sites you pay for would still show ads sometimes and don’t even allow VPNs.
At that point there is no point on paying for streaming and if you wanted to support the creators you could do it separetely with merch, other proyects they have or direct donations if any of those are aviable.
And most pirate streaming sites have a better player (and subtitle encoding of new episodes) than HBO Max.
Seriously, there’s no fucking excuse for a multiple billion dollar conglomerate with some of the highest rated entertainment programs in history in their library to care THAT little about UX!
Audible is literally the biggest pile of dogshit, completely barebones, yet somehow still immensely battery hungry pile of trash (jk I know it’s because of all the telemetry shit they’re using to profile my habits) with next to none of the basic QoL features you’d find on various free apps that would make listening on their app a more enjoyable experience.
Always, It’s just been about ability to do so. I did nothing but piracy in the 2000s but then went mostly paid in the 2010s and now I’m back to basically pirating everything but YouTube since family premium ends up being easier and cheaper than the effort to get around it.
However YouTube premium is slowly getting to a point where privacy seems inevitable in my case.
I would say it reached a better service position in the early 2000s with the rise of broadband (1.5Mbps to 3.0Mbps) internet speeds.
Prior to that, you still had IRC and BBS, but there was a divide between filesize and your ability to download that filesize within reason. There also existed a divide between what was accessible to technical users vs everyone else. Non-technical users might copy 3.5 floppies or cassettes but weren’t present in the internet space. Broadband opened the door for services like Napster, Kazaa, and Limewire which granted everyone access.
That service model was so successful to the point that it completely altered the music industry and how people bought music (ex. iTunes).
Torrenting has been more stable than paid services for years. I have prime video, but I watch torrents of the content.
if you wanted to support the creators you could do it separetely with merch, other proyects they have or direct donations if any of those are aviable.
Yeah, I’ve been getting more into Bandcamp so I can more directly support the bands that I like. I’ve given my wishlist to family, etc. for gifts.
“Always has been.”
That’s a tough line to draw; it’s different for everyone.
In the US, it used to go:
- Parents buy kids stuff
- Kids start buying their own, but can’t afford what they want to they bootleg
- Kids get decent-paying jobs that make the time needed to bootleg a bad equation.
- Kids become parents
But the coming and going of cheap music, streaming music, cheap video, and expensive video has wrecked the market.
I stopped pirating when purchasing music became cheap (apple music)
I started again when catalogs weren’t what I wanted. And supported artists directly.
I stopped video piracy when Netflix was cheap and good and started again when they sucked.
If you can bring me long-form entertainment that I enjoy and own for less than a meal out, I’ll buy it.
If you can bring me short-form entertainment that I can re-partake hundreds of times for less than a snack, I’ll buy it.
If I can’t buy it, or it encroaches on my other comforts, that’s where the line is for me
Decades ago when things weren’t available for purchase easily in many parts of the world but they still wanted to get their hands on that product.
I dont know when, but in my country community translations of anime are way better than those on an official streaming, if they are available at all. There is no point for paying for streaming when some random teams do better job at voicing anime while being funded by donations.
It was already the case 20 years ago when I was selling burned CDs in high school for pocket money.
It has always been the case except for a short period of time when Netflix was decent but then streaming turned into cable with ads and shitty content. Now it is all the more enticing due to Jellyfin, arr stack, Seerr and faster Internet speeds. If I had to pay for streaming all the shows I liked, I’d be paying in excess of $200 per month. No, thank you. The seven seas it is for me.
Yes exactly and I always consider Steam (and to a lesser degree the Kindle ecosystem), which make it obvious to me that interoperability and convenience are something consumers are willing to pay for.
Piracy is always better than paying. There is no way for a product that has to pay for content and provide infra + development to be better than something you can get for free and do whatever you want with.
Now, yes. Back in the day? Ehhh maybe not. Early files and torrents were super low quality, maybe had an RSS feed. Hell, the original client was one window with one d/l going. You had to launch another instance to d/l another one. Then Netflix happened and it was like “man, this is pretty cheap and the quality is better than i’m getting online” and the hat went away for a while. Now that we are essentially back to cable, out came the hat.
idk about everyone else but that was the year 2001 when my family got cable internet. I’ve never paid for anything streaming, I’m against subscriptions more strongly than most people admittedly, so I actively avoid them and it changes my hardware buying habits too if there’s paywalled things like online play for example. Consoles are dead to me now. 360, PS4, then the Switch. Now they get none of my money, I bought used and piracy modded them.
idk about better service. I was never convinced by that idea. I was still going to video and game rental stores until they shut down to my dismay, I don’t really get why everyone decided streaming was better, the quality and selection sure fucking wasn’t good and now it’s all fractured cross a bazillion competitor streaming services with exclusive content. Still would go to a rental shop today. I kinda do, my local library. But they have less selection/carrying capacity than my favourite gigantic Video Headquarters shop did. RIP. I despise shitty streaming bitrates even when I’m pirating I opt for an optical disc rip over a rip from a streaming site whenever possible. With Stremio and a debrid service I can stream 4K HDR bluray rips for $5 a month. Pfffff.
Music I buy vinyl and Bandcamp is convenient. I buy more than I pirate. Was the reverse when I was younger.
Games I often buy from GOG first if they have what I’m looking for, then Steam but I buy from 3rd party key shops…the legit ones like Green Man Gaming and such. Fir awhilI barely pirated new. Then CAD dropped and prices eben in USD webt way up with bullshit addons and season passes. Now I pirate more again especially if it’s not multiplayer. I don’t pirate anything indie (not just games) tho, personal rule.
Respect for not pirating indie stuff
It’s still a pretty big exception since I play a lot of games every year and increasingly less AAA (actually, looking at my legit libraries and Faugus Launcher/pirate folder, it’s been roughly 85% indie the past few years. Jesus. That’s both perfectly fine with me and sad about the state of gaming corps), but my overall consumption rate hasn’t slowed.
I think it started around the passing of the Statute of Anne in 1710, but probably earlier too. Copywrong has always been a problem.
Back in 1983, when my neighbor copied the Monopoly game for me to play on my C64. Cassette drive. Shit took forever to load. Fun af. At that point, the idea of paying seemed ridiculous. Then came the npd bbs era. Aye, matey. 🏴☠️
I remember walking around my neighborhood with a box of floppies going from friend to friend making mass copies of games we had for the c64 (was popular among my friends). We were just sharing, didn’t even think about piracy then. Cracktro’s were just neat things to my tiny brain then, not “we cracked this, you pirated it!”. I really didn’t get that point of it being piracy until I hit a BBS outside of my normal area that had FULL PROGRAMS to d/l for free! Took a month and a day at 300baud but holy crap, that program costs literally over $1000 but there it is in all it’s free glory. That was really my beginning into donning the hat and setting sail.
We were on the same path! I started my own bbs, which eventually got me access to some of the big time bbs clearing houses that had cd towers worth of stuff. They had isdn lines, 28.8 modem banks, etc. I had to do a phone interview with one of them… I think that was “Phantom West” and another one that happened to be in my calling area called “Transfixus Sed Non Mortus”, which eventually got busted. Those Phantom guys actually produced pirated discs and manuals to sell at computer swap meets and to China.
Dogs were off the leash then. Did I need Harvard Graphics? No. Was I downloading it? Yup!
As I grow older and can afford software, apps mostly, I’m ok with throwing a little back to the dev. Can fuck right off with a subscription, however.
