If the super-rich don't want to pay taxes, then why should I pay for subscriptions or watching movies?
this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026
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“This show is not available in your country” is the one that pisses me off the most. The Internet connects the entire world and then we have unnecessary artificial barriers like georestriction for no reason. There’s foreign shows I’ve been wanting to watch but they’re not available on torrents and only on these georestricted platforms so I can’t even watch it even if I’m willing to pay (which I am for few films).
its annoying but a carry over from film distribution rights that are negotiated. I agree these should have been updated by now , and region locks make no sense, unless a government is trying to control its people's media.
The Internet connects the entire world and then we have unnecessary artificial barriers like georestriction for no reason.
Lawyers negociate rights for media with every country. The reason is money.
What about using a VPN?
Idk if sites have ways to block that now
Even VPN isn’t enough. Ex. One time I wanted to watch a show that’s only available on Amazon Prime India according to justwatch. VPN isn’t enough because I’m using US-based Amazon account and I have to create an Amazon IN account per Amazon’s policies. And for that I need an India phone number for verification. So of course I don’t want to spend money on account setup especially since I don’t know if it’ll work. So I setup Azure VM based in India (in case they use location) but it still got stuck on the phone verification or puzzle loop so there’s nothing I can do unless I find a friend in India and use their account :(
And it wasn't available on any piracy sites I'm guessing? Yeah that is rough. I know it took me quite some time to track down a copy of the movie Blueberry for similar reasons. (Weird French acid western)
yeah not available on any torrent sites. I checked all of the major ones through Jackett and it returned no results. If you’re curious, the name of the movie is “Kulkarni Chaukatla Deshpande”. There’s a couple movies like that that are available on Amazon Prime India but not on torrent trackers.
Damn I tried looking and for a second I thought I found a free online version for you, but it was actually just "Mrs. Deshpande"
@7101334 @coolfission they do but they get circumvented fast.
The real way the gov/big tech (they are one and the same) will shut this down is by making vpns illegal, and making your ISP beholden to this law, and the next step is to make your OS verify who you are with Id or biometric. This means anyone using Linux or graphene os etc will be marked a criminal. All part of their plan.
yeah and we’re already seeing that with how now you need an account with your personal information just to use software. And everything is requiring a phone number and SMS verification to setup. I miss the days when all I needed to create an account on major sites was an email and password.
One thing that I will enjoy with the slow demise of streaming is that the current generation will git gud at IT again. It's kinda shocking, as an older millenial/xennial, how bad some of the Gen Z's I work with are with basic IT tasks whereas X's and M's are fine with it as we've had to deal with Napster and Limewire
Hopefully some. The apathy is strong in this generation
Yo ho ho. If purchase is not ownership, then piracy is not theft.
the fact that Gabe said "piracy is a service problem" fifteen fucking years ago, and none of these fuckwits in content distribution have learned this at all is a source of continuous astonishment to me.
I havent pirated a single game since i installed steam 20 years ago
There was a short period of time where netflix was good enough so i didnt pirate movies or tv shows either
It's 100% a service problem
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For piracy I mostly go to those watch online sites with ad block and stuff turned on. I used to torrent but I don't do that much anymore.
Same, but oh my god I miss WatchEpisodes. It would track what episodes you had actually watched already. I have a shit memory in some cases and an extra-shit memory when it comes to remembering which episode I watched last lol
I torrent because I care about quality. I can usually find 4K torrents of stuff I like.
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Completely relatable. The prices keep going up with more and more restrictions while being enshittified with ads, tiered service, and paying twice to watch something - the streaming service fee and then a rental fee on top of that, for a movie that might be a decade or more old.
Arr…fuck that.
This is exactly why people fled cable. It was completely predictable the streaming services would enshittify just like cable.
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The new one is: This streaming service is owned by one the most evil people on the planet, and it comes included with my phone plan, but I'm just going to pirate everything anyway, just because Fuck Them.
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Wife and I live in Germany, but still have some streaming services from our home country in Eastern Europe.
We started a Scream movie marathon on the weekend to catch up on the series, before we watch the newest one in cinema.
We watched the first 2, and half of the 3rd on 28th February Saturday on one of the streaming platforms (SkyShowtime). The next morning (1st of March), the movies were not available anymore.
We finished 3 and watched 4 on Amazon Prime, but within that we had to start a separate subscription for horror movies.
5 was only available in German with no subtitles, so I had to search for another source. Ended up creating a Paramount+ account, downloaded the app, and watched the movie there.
Then back to Amazon Prime, where finished the 6th Scream movie, before heading to the local cinema.
This was the last straw, we decided to go back to sail the seas after a decade of streaming service subscription. Next weekend I will take some time to figure out the setup we need to make this happen safely, as a lot has changed since I left it behind.
You're in for a treat. The landscape and software to self host is so good now.
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Do what you want, cuz a pirate is free
You ARRRR a pirate!
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