One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue. The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting anti-piracy technology to work. It’s by giving those people a service that’s better than what they’re receiving from the pirates.

— Gabe Newell, 2011

I reduced, but never really stopped, pirating visual media. Entirely because even when Netflix was the only streaming service, there were still tons of shows and movies that weren't accessible digitally at all.

However I completely stopped pirating music over a decade ago, because everything I wanted was available on Spotify, and the service of discovery is well worth the price. As long as they don't get greedy and the service cost only rises with inflation, they'll have my approx $100 annually (2023 baseline) for the rest of my life.

Netflix, Disney, Paramount, etc can eat a bag of dicks though. They've each proven they're nothing but greedy parasites, and the only way I'd stop pirating is with a single subscription that hosts everything for a reasonable price... There's a higher probability that hell freezes over, so instead I'll spend roughly $100 a month in computing hardware, internet services, and time, to pirate 90% of my content.

Steamers also paved the road to Cleveland

No matter what they say capitalists do not actually like, or benefit, from competition.

It's not competition if everyone has exclusivity contracts on all the content. Take Spotify vs Netflix for example. Spotify will have mostly the same base content as Apple Music, Deezer, what have you. With Netflix... You don't get any Disney movies, no game of thrones, you have to buy all of the services to get access to even just the content you want.

I've never felt I was missing out on anything with Spotify, as I likely wouldn't with YouTube music either. Maybe some have less but it's at least a very comparable catalogue across the board.

More competition == price increase

Less competition == price increase

You're forgetting the effect demand has on prices. Studios all pulled their content from Netflix and said "fuck you, pay us". People paid, so here we are. Had people said "No, fuck you! Put the content back on Netflix" then we'd still have $15 for everything on one platform. There was enough demand for companies to sell their products. It's not competition when each service has different offerings.

That possibly would've worked if the platforms all had an agreement to share the same content and not monopolize exclusives. If that were the case you'd choose the one with the best price and the best features.0

Is it really competition when for example Disney has a monopoly on Disney Streaming Content?

I don't think that's what happened. Studios fought streaming tooth and nail. But they were willing to license their videos to Netflix because they were a DVD distributor. Then Netflix was really savvy and pioneered streaming, making a killing doing it. Those same anti-progress, greedy fuck studios who fought against streaming saw how much money Netflix was making with their content and spun up their own half-assed streaming services, then pulled their licensing from Netflix. Netflix didn't kill itself, the same greedy people who tried to kill the vcr, fought streaming, and sued Napster users, killed it.

Be nice to the goose.

• Martin O'Donnell

That is the bed they made and now the studios must lay in it.

I don't care if they start distributing microSD cards, there MUST be a physical distribution format that is not linked to an online subscription.

I mean, there literally are complex websites created just to help people find and filter for streaming services that serve a movie or a series under what conditions or prices and the results are so fragmented and unsatisfying. Hell, so often a simple classic movie is on none of the streaming services or just on one on which you even then have to pay even if you are paying for a subscription (looking at you, Prime). So what the f, how should I happily decide for a subscription if the next day I have to yet pay for another one just because a effin movie is on another platform? Streaming has become a damn chore.

Ironically the unofficial streaming sites basically have that covered now. Pretty much anything you want on release day from the major streaming companies.

All The Web is getting too hard to navigate. If it isn’t the layers of layers of ads and trackers making it impossible to read content, or the obfuscation of permalinks, or AI plagiarism of original content, it is the 7 pages of Sponsored Links in search engines, meaning that your eyeballs are going to the highest bidder.

Meanwhile algorithmic curated lists are force-fed to consumers for the sole purpose of manipulating their political beliefs and buying habits, railroading them into making life decisions for the benefit of others.