Following on from examples like the Netflix price increases and account sharing crackdowns and Xbox Game Pass price increases announced today, as well as the crackdowns on overseas accounts for multiple sites, have you gone back to piracy for movies, tv or games? Or to buying content instead? Or something else?
Has The Rise in Subscriptions Cost Sent You (Back) to Piracy?
spackbace on 02/10/2025 - 12:00
Last edited 02/10/2025 - 12:21
Last edited 02/10/2025 - 12:21
Poll Options
- 45I don't pirate, I pay for any subscriptions I want
- 460I pirate some, pay for some
- 164I only pirate
- 16I only use free options (Youtube with ads, Spotify with ads etc)
- 29I just wanted to vote
Comments
Politician?
In Sweden, 25% of people reported pirating in 2024 – a trend driven by 15-24-year-olds
25% of people surveyed :)
That were honest
Downloading pirated material in this country is not punishable by the law. It's not considered theft. Therefor it's not a crime as punishment from the law is part of the definition of a crime.
Once apon a time ISPs sent warning letters to people - but that hasn't happened in a very long time.
Thanks to 100% cashback deals on vpns?
Copyright infringement is a civil dispute, not a criminal offence.
The Copyright ACT 1968 involves both civil remedies and criminal offences depending on the relevant infringement.
Copyright infringement is a civil dispute, not a criminal offence.
Unless used for commercial purposes. Seems to get criminal pretty fast around s130 ish of the Copyright Act 1968
Commercial purposes starts with showing it to one other person whether or not there is an exchange of benefit.
Pirating through mediums like RD is not illegal for the consumer.
I don't have a VPN for linux isos.
Crime 😂😂😂.
There are a fair number of good IPTV (or versions of it) around - Pirate life is very old school - i got nothing against it but i havent Pirated in a long time
Is iptv a piracy thing though? Are you paying a subscription for a piracy service?
im not saying im paying for anything im just saying the services exist
But is iptv something people pay for (not necessarily you of course)?
@tenpercent: Yea IPTV subscriptions usually cost money….but from what i 'hear' it can save you a boat load….
Typically iptv services are not legit anyway. They are usually something cobbled together by a third party and onsold. Has been the case since the old Kodi days where you had to pay for certain repos. Very few IPTV offerings would be legit outside of the subscription services we know and international bundles for foreign language content.
There are a fair number of good IPTV (or versions of it) around - Pirate life is very old school
I don't think you understand what piracy means then
If it helps you sleep better at night keep telling yourself that you are not pirating.
Streaming stolen content is just as much piracy as downloading it.
Paying someone to stream the content that they have stolen is in my view worse than downloading it.Your accessing content from a source that does not hold or pay for the rights to do so. It's still piracy. Was someone buying unlocked cards for foxtel back in the day not piracy? Any form of access to content that is not sold by the original copyright holder or someone licensed to broadcast it is considered piracy. Unless it's offered up from free of course legitimately.
Your accessing content from a source that does not hold or pay for the rights to do so. It's still piracy. Was someone buying unlocked cards for foxtel back in the day not piracy? Any form of access to content that is not sold by the original copyright holder or someone licensed to broadcast it is considered piracy. Unless it's offered up from free of course legitimately.
sure its piracy then, arrrrggghhhh!!!!
Paying someone to stream the content that they have stolen is in my view worse than downloading it.
this might be just my opinion but i couldnt care less what you view is - in my view it is 'fine' and what advances in techology is for, if anything i would argue reducing streaming via geo-blocking and charging different people different prices is 'unethical and discrimination' but it is funny how that never seems to be the arguement it is always YOU PLEBS ARE STEALING!!! ….Not we are discriminating against you and milking you for profits
It isnt we are over-charging and providing you less for more money then others for NO REASON
i still remember ITunes charing like $3-4 a song back in the day in Aus whilst it was like the equivalent of 15cents in other nations, that is discrimination that should be illegal - i remember some moron trying to justify it when the question was their is NO reason for the price difference between geo-regions
I mean why the hell is it $30 for a year of netflix in Turkey but close to $200 here in Australia? - im sorry till the discrimiantion ends i support anyone gaming the system (im not saying or admiting to piracy myself) but anyone doing it GO FOR IT!!! digital content should be the same price no where you live i understand some variation due to taxes and red tape but that it like 5-20% variation not 5000% mark up -it is discrimination at its finest to charge someone for something that has ZERO difference in production cost difference because where someone lives on the planet.
this might be just my opinion but i couldnt care less what you view is -
It's got nothing to do with their view, it is piracy.
t is discrimination at its finest to charge someone for something that has ZERO difference in production cost difference because where someone lives on the planet.
So everyone on the planet has the same purchasing power, infrastructure, regulations etc?
So everyone on the planet has the same purchasing power, infrastructure, regulations etc?
this has legit nothing to do with the point
if you are selling physical good in a country there are loads of factors that will influence the cost of something
99% of those factors dont/cant/wont occur or be a barrier to digital content - streaming a movie in Australia doesnt Cost netflix any signficant difference compared to a nation like India certainly not enough to justify the price gaps/mark ups
this is textbook discrimantion - if you cant understand that your a paid shill or vested interest in these companies and thus cannot be objective
sure some taxes and regulation would add cost to the price but not what is being charged - these companies are 'essentially' racist and are discriminating against different peoples from different countries this is a hard fact - it should NOT be legal and whilst it is i encourage everyone to priate away if they wish there is no common sense justification for geo-blocking and price gouging certain people/races/cultures
99% of those factors dont/cant/wont occur or be a barrier to digital content - streaming a movie in Australia doesnt cost Cost netflix any signficant difference compared to a nation like India no where near the mark up in the price
this is textbook discrimantion - if you cant understand that your a paid shill or vested interest in these companies and thus cannot be objective
You're acting like the only cost is IT infrastructure. They could have different distributors/licensors for a start.
You're acting like the only cost is IT infrastructure. They could have different distributors/licensors for a start.
you're acting like they arent ripping people off in 1st world nations?
LMAO
if you cant admit it is discrimination then im sorry then you are lost in the head
There are more billionaires (and peple with NW >100m) in India then the entire population of Australia but they are paying less of Netflix then someone making min wage in Australia - that is the issue it is racist and the big companies can f—k off with their moral high ground because it is textbook discrimination!
until it is ONE PRICE FOR ALL the moral high ground is 100% on the side of the priates
There are more billionaires (and peple with NW >100m) in India then the entire population of Australia but they are paying less of Netflix then someone making min wage in Australia - that is the issue it is racist and the big companies can f—k off with their moral high ground because it is textbook discrimination!
Imagine with a straight face trying to say because India has more billionaires than Australia, it has a higher standard of living for the average person. Dumbest thing I’ve read this week. And that includes big tech are racist.
@Randolph Duke: What does having a higher stand of living have to do with discrimination? I didnt mention standard of living once
Your straight up cooked if that is your arguement for discrimination….
Are you a racist? Like dead set? Are you a bigot? Because that is the only explanation I could have for someone being so out of touch
Charging people more based on race is text book discrimination only racist would argue against it
Piracy includes being in possession of infringing material.
More importantly, once it's monetised it becomes a commercial use which does bump your copyright infringement up to criminal piracy status. :)
@Muppet Detector: We live in a country where you can stab someone to death and get bail
All ill say is ….arrrgggghhhhh ye full of shattttt mateyyyy!!!
Because we b sailing the seven seas for 20 years and those winds keep blown!!! Savvy!?
@Muppet Detector: I don't think anyone here is a running an iptv or debrid service or otherwise making money from the high seas.
Who knows, maybe there's a few oldies sitting in the back rows of cinemas with their handy cams and flogging pirate dvds at the markets.@tenpercent: Straight up if someone has priated DVDs id recommend paying for content the visuals are like 20 years out of date!!!
Legit blast from the past!!!!! Lets just go straight up VHS recordings of a few episodes of the Simpson's
@tenpercent: You only need to be in posession of the infringing material.
It doesn't matter if "you" are the one who benefited, only that someone in the supply chain has.
If you read the legislation like I suggested earlier, you would understand that once the product is monetised (or otherwise exchanged for benefit), it is now pirated goods.
Hence, if you are in possession of those pirated goods, you are still engaged in piracy, whether you payed any money or not.
Sort of like stolen goods.
If you are in receipt of goods which had previously been stolen, they are still stolen even though you didn't pay for them.
@Muppet Detector: I wasn't disputing this:
Piracy includes being in possession of infringing material.
I was commenting on this:
More importantly, once it's monetised it becomes a commercial use which does bump your copyright infringement up to criminal piracy status. :)
You say:
It doesn't matter if "you" are the one who benefited, only that someone in the supply chain has.
So does that mean if Bob rents access to a server on which he stores pirated copies of propaganda, and Bill is one of Bob's customers paying for access to that server, obviously Bill has monetised the piracy but are you saying Bill has as well? It makey no sensey.
And if that's so then there is no "bump your copyright infringement up to criminal piracy status" it's just by legalese definition always 'bumped up'. So that seems superfluous.
If you are in receipt of goods which had previously been stolen, they are still stolen even though you didn't pay for them.
Yes, but is it stolen though? No one has been deprived of their property. Copy + Paste =/= Delete
I still pay for 2 subscriptions, but i honestly pirate everything else. I cant justify the price of everything (and its getting higher).
Watched this earlier in the week which I found interesting…
Yeah I saw that today which prompted this discussion 🙂
Damn I hate to think what that has set you back
With the exception of maintaining a complete LRG set, almost everything else is bought heavily discounted. Haven't paid full price for anything, not even first party games.
Plus, they all retain some value and can be sold on, so it's not lost tied to an account. Notwithstanding the rare ones that appreciate in value on top of that.
I mean, I have the entire Wii collection on a small hdd lol probably 1 of the last consoles where that is possible
just to let you know, PS6 on the way :)
Sick collection! I don't have anywhere near as many, but my subs are similar. I dropped Netflix when they did the split household thing. And Disney plus got boring fast.
Prime and YouTube Premium (we don't use Spotify, so YouTube music and ytp works for us and family plan, I share with partner, my brother mum and dad). Spose I also pay for Google One.
Having a home server in an optiplex doing some… Exploring helps too.
Damn, how old are you? I'm super jealous of the free time required to play that many games.
Not sure age has anything to do with it per se? Not everyone has kids lol. Lots of DINK couples these days! (Myself included, mid 30s). Though I get probably 5-10hrs of gaming a week, 2-3 of those are co-op with mates online once a week.
respect dude
idk if i can really recommend pirating game content due to high chance of malware - but rd / stremio been a+++
Pirating software is really dangerous. Don't do it. Support the Devs
Okay Adobe
didnt neg u but i meant rd/stremio for videos
Maybe devs want to sell start selling their software then instead of renting it?
bad thing happen
everything after bad thing = bad
You wouldn't steal a country?
I'd download some.
lolol
So we have sovereign pirates now?
The open ocean is a free square.
Duckspeak.
farts on your face
No. I would never visit websites like piratebay or libgen to download many popular media types freely and easily. Definitely not.
I was only there to get instruction on how to get away from there
Isn't that where all the good linux isos are?
That's what I was told also.
Also people should stay away from Stremio, Torbox, Webtorrent and Usenet like easynews which you can find coupons for $45 per year.
private trackers + usenet
automate it with the *arrsThe trash quality of streaming and Dolby vision being proprietary pos makes me just stream Bluray rips or ripped streaming shows via my am6b+ with coreelec as it plays them back properly.
I pay, but only if I can get a discount and only one sub at a time (and mostly none).
The value proposition of paying a monthly subscription was good when it was 1 or two subs, and relatively affordable, Netflix and Spotify for ~$20/m.
But, a set of constantly increasing and utility limiting subscriptions - e.g sharing, location, device, etc who are all chasing $30/m each and are increasingly difficult to stop and start, not so much.
And that’s from a monetary perspective, if you include the insufferable barrage of American culture and politics spewing from the platforms…It’s enough to make you want to hammer nails through anatomy.
i subscribe for a month when i want to watch some shows. binge them. then cancel. rinse and repeat. works for me for someone who doesn't need to watch a show as soon as it comes out. sometimes, you would get special offers or discounts from the company to entice you to come back.
With the new NBN speeds, pirating hasn't been so much faster.
I'm on 500/50 and I torrented a 1gb file within 15 mins, otherwise I wouldn't on my previous 50/20 plan.
I still have a Netflix subscription but I have been sailing the seven seas a lot more over the past year or so.
Yip, base netflix for kids as it has no ads, the rest is stremio.
The crazy thing is i was fully keen to pay previously, and often had four or five subs on the go, but the constant price increases or changes to quality / number of screens has now forced me off them all. So instead of them all getting a decent sum they now get nothing.
100% agree. When the convenience of having a subscription for $8.99 meant I didn’t have to pirate, I happily paid it.
Fast forward to today and the price increases and fragmentation make it a bad deal.
And when Spotify price increases and loses big chunks of it’s catalog I’ll stop subscribing to music too.
Even paying for an Indian YouTube premium acct is piracy.
I have found many free options for paid subs.
Even paying for an Indian YouTube premium acct is piracy.
Indeed, I want to be fair to my Indian mates so I just use ublock origin and brave browser. F Google.
Is Indian YouTube still working for some? I get cancelled within a month even my friend said that gn me up sitting india.
Next time I will activate on my dad's account in India and add myself as family. Hope that will work
YouTube taking Australian payments and funneling then as transactions in Ireland is also piracy then.
Here here
why do you get offended at the word piracy? adblocking in sites like youtube is piracy as well, you are literally taking away the payment method from content creators.
Its not a big deal to own it
Some of us never left the High Seas.
Aye.
Born and die on the seamoney is for hardware. content and software is free. yarr
Id support developer for ad blockers though
The irony is piracy was solved. Prices were reasonable and subscriptions few.
Then they got greedy.
Sent me back to piracy for video, but music streaming is still a pretty excellent deal.
You can stream for free though. What else could you be buying?
Not anymore. They are hiking prices aggressively.
Never stopped buying my media in physical form.
Pornhub has everything I need for free
And x, telegram and instagram.
I have gone back to downloading cars
A sporting event I was interested in was behind yet another sub so I borrowed a login for the day just to test it out. A bit clunky but I am seriously reviewing the tech options.
iptv for live sports, the sheer number of channels its a bit daunting but worth it for the $50 odd a year
Is iptv a piracy thing though? Are you subscribing to a piracy service?
capslock on 02/10/2025 - 12:01 Comment score below threshold.
