Well, my friend, he’s kinda poor he can’t afford some books and some streaming services, so he pirates. He pirate books, audiobook and videos and other stuff. Sometimes he buys books he likes a lot out of loyalty to the author (yeah, I don’t understand it either), he likes to read physical books, but yeah, if he hates the author or just wants to skim through it, he will download the book.
He usually doesn’t like to pirate from small companies or professors who are trying to make a living by selling books, but from millionaires & plenty of mega corps which already have loads of money, he feels like it’s the right move to pirate
Also, have you ever noticed that you have felt that the value of a product has decreased just because you didn’t pay for it, thus you are less interested to read it? i.e., had you paid for the book, you would have more likely read that book.
He says he will buy stuff when his time is more valuable than money, let’s all hope that day is soon.
What are your piracy habits?
Oh let’s be real here, this is what capitalism does. It chooses the worst possible option for entertainment because it’s what makes the most money. What makes the most money is not making you happy, but getting you to stay subscribed.
Let me tell you the real secret. You know what it costs to rent a movie online? And stream it? And then never watch it again? Yeah now justify that against streaming services.
I’ll tell you right now, go get Plex. If you don’t already use a media server, start. Because chances are that you don’t actually watch 90% of what’s on those services. So that $15 a month for content you don’t own could easily be $20 a month on content that you do actually own. Not to mention there’s no ads involved and you can stream as many devices as you want from anywhere. Get friends to pitch in and it’s even better.
The ONLY argument for this is convenience of all the shows at your fingertips. Except now that’s not the case and they’re on different services, screw it, either pirate the media or buy it used on disc.
I don’t see what capitalism has to do with anything. As far as I remember, video rental stores started as a concept in the west, not under any communist regime. With how many grants governments write out to production companies to come film in their state, I don’t think the movie business is completely capitalistic anyway, because it seeks out state funding wherever it goes.
Video streaming services make content available for ridiculously low prices. The only way this can even work is that these companies assume you’ll stick with them for a xouooe of years, slowly making their money back off your subscription. The months that you watch less new content will pay for the months that you do.
Royalties and basic payment for streaming content are also pretty bad for the people working on shows. I’m not saying all these actors deserve their private jets, but acting is hard work, some shows involving 12-16 hour work days, and hard work should be rewarded at least. Meanwhile, studios are trying to use AI to own the visuals and sound of a person, which was the straw that broke the camel’s back and caused the current strikes. I suppose it’s a matter of opinion which is worse, their likeness being owned by companies or by the state, but the race to the bottom for content pricing are causing productions to pinch pennies real bad.
You can buy most media, but the math doesn’t work out if you regularly watch stuff. Shows go for about €10 per season digitally (you’ll have to strip the DRM) or about €50-60 for a full boxset of an older show. Great if you only watch one show per month, but I don’t.
Then you also need to set up Plex, pay for a server somewhere, and keep it running. I’m running Jellyfin and I’m fine with keeping that updated and working, but most people don’t care about any of that and don’t have the knowledge to set up something like Plex.
Movies are different from shows. Most of them make back their investment in the box office, so I have little qualms about them being pirated to hell and back. Independent movies less so, but I don’t watch those anyway. The biggest money suckers are TV shows, which are six or seven movies presented as separate episodes, with none of the initial return on investment. They must subsist on the few cents per view they receive in compensation, and that’ll take ages to make back the multi million investment, let alone pay any royalties for the people hired based on a percentage of the profits rather than a flat fee.
Piracy is the easiest way out, but it’ll hurt everyone in the long run. Once it becomes financially inviable to continue making certain content, they just won’t make any more.
Agreed, totally depends on how much you watch. But shopping used DVDs and like I said banding together with friends to buy content eventually begins to work out better for you.
I’m not someone who consumes tv and movie content en masse so it works out for me to do this and for a lot of people who watch a season or two of a show a month, it’s not that much more expensive to own.
What I meant about the capitalism concept is that the core idea isn’t about enjoyment or getting to watch what you want. It’s not about convenience anymore. This is a capitalistic cycle where it stops innovating and starts to poison it’s consumer.
So shows will now be splintered across services, shows will get cancelled for being less profitable, and the overall quality will dip because we’re driving art to the bottom price. Whatever makes shareholders more money. And is this true? I feel like it is. Quality of shows has dipped quite a bit to fit the streaming service pricing.
We can argue about whether people want that or not, but it’s basically just what’s been done with every other consumer item. Dominate the market, lose money, get the subscribers, and then make their experience shittier over time.