I stopped pirating about 10 years ago as it was easier just to pay for the service and stream. Then the providers got greedy; complete segregation of the content not only by platform but also by region. Streaming was no longer easy; you don’t know what platform the show/film is on or if it’s available in your region. So now it back to the high seas for films and TV shows as well as paying for an IP TV service that includes movies and TV on demand as well as live streams.

It all to do with ease of use and accessibility; I mean the music piracy has dropped off a cliff due to Spotify.

[–] briongloid@aussie.zone 4 points 1 year ago

I had taken a break from Piracy when US Netflix via VPN had the library it used to 10 years ago, it's mainly in the last couple years that it made sense to return to selfhosting.

[–] SmokytheBear@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah. The paid product must be superior.

I don't generally pirate games, because in the case of games, the paid product is superior to use. Automatic updates, online functionality, workshop integration etc. All reasons to prefer the paid version on something like Steam to pirating the game.

With a home media setup, you are probably still paying money. You need storage, things like VPN and Usenet subscriptions etc. It's not like I'm using them because they are free. I have spent money on them. I've just spent money on the superior implementation. It became the superior implementation once corporations predictably all wanted a slice of the pie and now my media server is much more enjoyable and easier to manage than 10 different subscription services I need to juggle because no way am I going to pay exorbitant amounts a month for all of them.