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.
this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026
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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
Same story here.
Loved Netflix at first. I used to pirate a lot of tb shows and movies and then completely stopped once Netflix became decent.
Then they turned to shit and I'm back to pirating.
But not only that, I'm actually PAYING to pirate content because its a service that just combines all content from Netflix, Disney, apple, etc into one singular app that you can stream from any android device with the app.
It can have pretty shit quality sometimes, but at least I can watch it.
I will pay for shit if it's easy access.
Fuck Netflix, Amazon, apple, Disney, etc. greedy fucks.
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The last game I pirated was Driver: San Francisco a couple years ago, because you couldn't (still can't? maybe?) buy it anywhere except for like, second-hand physical media, and I am not going through that hassle. I can't even remember the game I last pirated before that (Probably Sims 4, because fuck EA and fuck that laundry list of DLC -- but I can't be sure).
Music, movies, and TV shows, though? Oh yeah, baby, that's a weekly activity now. Netflix I dumped many years ago when the fracturing of content to twenty different streaming services happened, and Spotify I dumped just this last year for a few different reasons (the CEO donating to AI weapons programs, introducing a fuckass AI DJ, ICE ads, getting fed up with songs I either can't find or can find but aren't available in my region, or could listen to and enjoyed and then having them suddenly become unavailable, etc...)
I'm sure, someday, Steam will enshittify. Probably shortly after Gabe dies -- and it will be a dark day for me and millions of gamers worldwide. But for now, I'm more than happy to let Gabe empty my wallet with sales and convenience, because the gettin's been good for a couple decades and will likely remain so for another couple. I can't say the same for music, movies, and TV; I don't know if I'll ever end up paying for them again unless the distributors involved sort their shit out.
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In the grand scheme of things, they don't really care about piracy.
Yes, they could greatly reduce piracy by making their service affordable, available, and convenient ... but they would lose more profits from doing that than they currently do from piracy. They know enshittifying their service will result in increased piracy ... but they also know that it will result in extracting increased money from the people who do pay. And, overall, their profits are still higher despite the higher piracy levels.
(Heck, in some ways piracy has been shown to be overall beneficial. To some degree, it's free advertising, helping media spread through word of mouth. And maybe while they missed out on a media sale or subscription, they still end up making money from that pirate with a merchandise sale or something.)
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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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Do what you want, cuz a pirate is free
You ARRRR a pirate!
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.
If you want online streaming: fmhy
If you want torrenting, make sure to bind vpn to client
If you want media server, use jellyfin with arr stack
Happy sailing :)
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Use Jellyfin. I have been running it since the middle of last year and it has been amazing and stable. Have fun.
Yep. I pirated when I was young because doing things "proper" was more difficult. Then they started having reasonable fees for services that were easy to use without ads.
But now the prices are outrageous, the ads are back, and everything is so fragmented. Piracy is the better user experience again. I was about to set up a NAS and start sailing again, but now storage prices are jumping.
I may just start going outside.
What's an "outside," precious?
I think that's where what they call "grass" is.
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"The content isn't available in your region"
You have the content. I want to watch the content. But nooooo, I have to turn my VPN on and pretend I'm somewhere else, and you know I'm not really there because I can't magically materialize half-way across the world in 1 minute.
So what's the point? Just let me watch the damn content.
I'm sure these region locks make a lot of sense for the suits when it comes to paying royalties and whatnot but as a consumer it's infuriating. Archaic ass bullshit.
and you know I’m not really there because I can’t magically materialize half-way across the world in 1 minute.
Don't give them ideas
Its tied to royalties, which you mentioned, which are usually tied to archaic trade deals. The landscape may change after WW3 is done.
You're optimistic
"The content isn't available in your region"
"Please insert your testicles into the crushing receptacle and pay 14.99"
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I tried to buy digital copies of an album the other day and couldn't because it was only on streaming services and DRM'd to all shit, so I just pirated it instead.
Ended up with some high quality flac too...
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I turn full pirate at the first stage already. I despise ads so much.
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In instances where there is no legal way to watch something piracy hurts nobody as the company would not have made money from me anyway. It doesn't even hurt the artists, the refusal of the distributer to offer content worldwide is the real scandal that everyone in the creative industry should tackle.
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Okay I gotta disagree partially on the third panel. I'd much rather have the option of purchasing individual movies or shows than having a subscription. Like, imagine we had Steam but instead of games, it was shows and movies? That'd be great. Imagine the sales! PatientWatchers amirite?
Unfortunately it's rarely possible to actually purchase, and definitely not without any DRM. So the third panel should really say "This show is not available for purchase" or only mention renting or specify that it's with loads of DRM or whatever.
"purchasing" media you mean.
Unless they let you download the file without DRM, you're just renting the video with extra steps. We have seen many times that "purchased" videos from digital vendors gets revoked and the "purchase" is gone.
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Except after you rent/buy the video, you can only watch it as long as you pay for the subscription service you bought it from.
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