It was inevitable...
this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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I don't understand. What do you want, a global monopoly in streaming? Piracy is merely a symptom of market issues, not a direct participant. Without paying customers and a legitimate market, piracy wouldn't exist.
For companies not to milk every god damn cent out of consumers while providing a worse experience than the free alternatives. Netflix limits steam quality to 720p in browsers (except for Edge) forcing you to use their Windows app or a spyware filled smart TV to access 4k content THAT YOU PAY FOR. Cracking down on password sharing such that it is an inconvenience to try to use your Netflix account outside of your home. Constant price raises to all the streaming services for lesser features over time, and content that could just disappear from the platform entirely. We haven't even gotten to ads on paid tiers and "promotional" suggestions that are thinly veiled ads on non-ad plans.
You know what doesn't do those things? An MP4 file on a Plex server. It's gotten so frustrating to use streaming services that my partner and I torrent movies we have legal access to because it's a better experience, and I'm guaranteed to be able to finish a series without it being ripped from the platform. I can also watch the 4k content I PAY FOR in any browser I please. There is zero reason a bunch of volunteers working together should be able to provide a better user experience than multi-billion dollar companies.
You know what I rarely pirate? Steam games. They've made the user experience 10x better than pirating with non-intrusive DRM and an endless number of features I use regularly (controller support, custom configurations, cloud saves, online "local" co-op, remote game streaming, workshop/mod support, community guides, automatic updates, local network downloads...I could go on for an hour). The times I do pirate are for games I'm not sure I will like or games that might not run well on my Steam Deck. You know what Valve is doing to combat this? Introducing a game trial feature.
The last game I pirated was Minecraft Alpha. Steam just makes it so easy
I'm just shitposting stolen content, please don't take anything I say or post too seriously :D
You can have something similar to what music streamers are doing. Sure Spotify has a majority, but you still have perfectly fine competitors.
I had not pirated music for more than a decade now.
Pirating music and PC games isn't worth it imo.
Not pirating movies and shows isn't worth it either. I can't subscribe to everything.
The ideal solution is not a Netflix monopoly, it's one where content providers must pick a single price, and any streaming service can pay that price and provide access to the content. That way you can pay for only Netflix, but get access to everything. Netflix wouldn't end up with a monopoly though, because anybody else could offer a better service and people could switch to it and not lose access to anything.
This is unlikely to happen anytime soon due to the intentional clusterfuck of laws like copyright, but it would solve the problem neatly.