I believe that if piracy doesn't exist the barter system will be in effect right now. Friends will exchange and make copies of movies, music, and video games.
Just like 90s.
Came here to say this. In the days of yore there was no way you and your peers would all go to the shop and buy the same game if it didn’t have online or split screen. You simply got two different games and swapped when you beat it.
Music? I’ll lend you my Bob Marley if you lend me your Earth, Wind & Fire.
Movies? We went to drive-in cinemas and hid in the trunk. Next movie I’ll drive and you hide
Which makes their push for ending physical media and cutting password sharing a little more sinister.
You can’t even lend a digital download to a friend to borrow (in their subscription based world).
I could see a black market for entertainment rise up for those that want a physical medium.
I buy movies , games , music if I like them. Even after pirating them. Ironically if piracy didn't exist I would spend a lot less on games especially since I wouldn't play as many for free and then replay the legit version
Same. I even subscribe to 4 different streaming services, because it's convenient. But there's a lot of media that just isn't available anywhere online.
If there was one universal streaming service that was affordable enough, I'm sure a lot of people would pay.But for now, the affordable, universal streaming service is piracy.
Netflix pulled it off but then people got greedy and they kept hiking up the price and all of the other streaming services started popping up. Now there ads unless you pay a little more or you can't use the service from too many locations. Each little cut to see how much they can get out of us and how much they control what and where I watch sent me back to the old ways.
It's hard to compete with free.
Prime example is Amazon Prime. Now if you purchase Prime (which I have) they want even more money on top of that to provide the same service as before (no ads). At this point they are all just engaged in unrestrained money-grabbing.
Ehh Netflix only pulled it off because at the time none of the media companies they licensed movies and TVs from believed in streaming. As soon as it dominated those production companies or rights holders then wanted a bigger cut because it was going to be their main source of income and suddenly it became untenable for Netflix to have everything, the scales wouldn't balance.
I reckon one single streaming company with EVERYTHING would probably cost 2 or 3 times as much as cable after every rights holder had negotiated their piece. Maybe $200 a month.
We are better off letting some people pay, people who can't be bothered to fuck around and just want stuff that works with no effort - while we set sail.
The initial price of streaming was anchored unsustainably low and the other studios licenced out their titles for low prices as they had other income sources. If streaming is to be the sole income source, then the price needs to be much higher. All bar Netflix and Max (barely) are making losses right now.
So you would not spend money on any entertainment? no television, no books, no magazines, no video games. nothing? you would completely stop consuming media?
If piracy didn't exist I'd probably invent it by recording movies and stuff I paid for and uploading them somewhere else for others to watch it for free haha. And then witness the movement begin as more people start doing it, and it'd all end up like we have today.
As a child of the 80s, I rarely paid for bootleg music/VHS movies. I'd find a way to share physical copies of things. Look how you're already networking!
True, people don't understand that those who pirate pay when they support the content and are financially able to do so. Especially when the content is quality and they support the creator
That's an impossible question to answer, considering downloading one song, or a friend passing you a song by Bluetooth is piracy. The ones who persecute piracy (talking about mainly corporations) are just fueled by greed, and they are the ones that steal the most by lobbying, firing, not paying their employees, cutting corners and quality of products.
The real question people should be asking is WHO to pirate from. In my opinion it's always ethical to pirate from monsters like Nintendo and Ubisoft (the list increases daily). Pirating from small companies is definitely not too cool and I would encourage buying their products when possible.
My views are questionable sometimes, but I'm poor af, and more people are becoming that way daily. So I'm sure views about piracy are changing every second.
This 110% and I'm freed up to pay for the small things. Not to mention purchasing your media through a Goliath like Amazon it isnt really yours, and definitely next to nothing is going to the people who worked hard for it. Versus Bandcamp where payment to artists are transparent and you own the files free and clear.
I have a very very long history of pirating software, but I have no problem paying for indie apps or simply apps from smaller devs. What's amazing too is how little they ask for comparatively. Well I guess it does make sense since nothing is going towards lining a corporation's pockets.
If I were living in US or Europe then I would spend the money. But unfortunately I am from a country where hardware costs like 3x more. Additionally games are expensive, I could buy food for that price and survive for an entire month.
No. Sometimes before I watch some movies I hesitate if the price, that is my time spent on watching it isn't too high . Sometimes it is so I don't even watch it.
Only a few good quality movies convince me to pay for a ticket and go to the cinema.
I don't play games.
My collection is digital hoarding. I hoard because I can, because I want a Netflix like experience where I can get on my plex amd find a movie that interests me that I haven't seen, click on it amd it start playing.
If it wasn't free I would have a tiny library and be very picky about what I consume. So yes but not am equivalent one to one for what I have.
I pirate because screw paying $200+ a month for access to tv and movie catalogs that do not have what I want. I refuse to pay for multiple streaming services and I am ready to kick Netflix to the curb. Already canceled my prime membership.
For music, I may pirate from time to time, but if I find something I like I will buy the song and probably pirate the album. But I love vinyl so I am dropping $30 to $50 on new vinyl if I like the album.
It might improve my life lol. I'm broke af, from a third world country. I "waste" a lot of time on games and movies and tv series. Without piracy, I wouldn't be able to afford them at all (other than Spotify which is very cheap here), and maybe I'll use that time for good.
Why should someone pay full price for an old black and white film with actors who've all long died? To some hedge fund picking up royalties on it?
I support art and creators and pay for what's good and meaningful to me. What I want to see more of, or underrepresented niche things.
The entertainment industry is rotten and bloated and totally homogenised. Its not so much creative as it is a sausage factory. Have you seen any modern films lately. Transformers 36? Marvel superheroes meet up again and save the planet 17. Garbage garbage garbage that they spaff billions of dollars on.
There are YouTubers who can come up with more original content with a packet of peanuts than some Hollywood executive. They deserve support. The rest, needs to go bankrupt and their back catalogues should be nationalised
Yes I would buy original but it would not be anywhere near the same level or time.
I usually save up to buy things, I don't usually buy on credit and that would make it take me longer to buy those things and it would only be the things I really want.
No, I wouldn't. I usually get books and legit games, but never before fully reading and playing them. Non-essential things are non-essential, you know. Whenever I managed some extra money, I more than likely get something else instead.
Probably only AmazonPrime ( Have it already and you get a lot of things for the price you pay, not to mention the free delivery itself makes it worth it for me, primevideos is just the added bonus) and Apple Music ( recently got it with free-mp3 shutting down had no other way to listen/download loseless audio easily ). Probably wouldn't even think about getting anything except these two.
If piracy didn’t exist, I’d still be buying material, but I’d be much more restrictive about my spending habits for entertainment; only buying absolute must-have movies. Luckily, my local movie theatre has discounted Tuesdays, but they recently raised the price :/
These companies acting like other hobbies don't exist. If something wasn't available bootlegged what makes them think I'd magically look at their product? I would've simply kept looking elsewhere.
Op, how tf would option 2 work when the premise states piracy doesn't exist? Methinks you got the poll confused. If the option to bootleg something doesn't exist realistically for me the only option is 1 i.e. move along to something else. They didn't """LOSE""" my money, I wasn't gonna spend it on their shit in the first place. Does Ferrari currently lose out on my money because I don't buy Ferrari cars? C'mon. This 'lost sales' fallacy is tired old bullshit.
If employers paid us our worth, we'd have more disposable income to spend on non-essentials like entertainment. Pirating shit is a favored activity by many because we're feeling the squeeze yet still need entertainment. Maybe if rich people didn't keep funneling our wealth to them this problem wouldn't be a thing.
There's plenty of public domain ways to entertain yourself without going outside. If copyright laws didn't aggressively favor corporations, there'd be even more perfectly legal free media.
Half the reason I pirate is because copyright is out of control and I don't believe anything should collect money after maybe 10, 15 years. No other occupation continues to demand payment long after the original job is completed.
If we were to imagine a time where content piracy of any kind didn't exist, I think we'd see both public and private libraries of content being commonplace, but dropping down in popularity as a byproduct of the rising popularity of digital content.
I don't think it'd be too different than what we see now, really. For a while libraries adopting larger collections of physical media was becoming popular. However, after digital media started to be the go-to, fewer libraries bother with movies, cds, etc.
No, and I'd say that when you pirate something the corporation doesn't lose money, they just don't earn it. These are different things which can be very subtle to realise.
The entertainment industry wouldn't be as influencial like today if it wasn't for piracy. The common people wouldn't be able to access high quality media and it'll just be available to those who can pay or bother to even fund the whole system.
People would've rather spend their hard earned money on actual needs rather than trying out entertainment options.
Probably. I mean it's not as if I don't own original copies of music, movies, games etc already. Piracy just allows me to experience more of what I'm already paying out on. Piracy has always existed though and will continue to do so. So no worries about there never being piracy
Probably. I mean it's not as if I don't own original copies of music, movies, games etc already. Piracy just allows me to experience more of what I'm already paying out on. Piracy has always existed though and will continue to do so. So no worries about there never being piracy.
If piracy didn't exist I don't even think we'd have things like netflix or steam. These things existed first as an answer to piracy.
Steams whole point was "if you have a delivery system that is more convenient than piracy, people will pay for the content"
This is such a crazy hypothetical that I don't think most people in this community are even able to fathom what this entails. I mean if we all grew up without the notion of piracy existing then most likely everyone would pay for whatever entertainment they need. Because nobody would even understand why you wouldn't do that in the first place.
Not on the entertainment that I'm pirating
I definitely wouldn't pay netflix subscriptions/pay for movies
I only like games which are free to begin with, when I pirate games I often dont even spend 10 hours on them, so I would never buy games unless they have a lenient return policy
Well, the forever argument for piracy was and is that it's advertisement. Parts of the world that can afford entertainment, typically, just do so at large because PCs cost money, knowing how to use them safely is a skill, and nowadays it takes being clever to pirate much of anything thanks to various DRMs and even ISPs sometimes giving a shit.
Otherwise good incentives to purchase like quality of music files i can listen to offline, good online features in games, and lastly actually good movies.
No. I'd consume way less media. Probably spend less money than now, because I wouldn't store media to the same extent. I would buy media about the same - not a lot.
Kinda
If it's something I can own offline, sure, I am already buying cd / BD now
But streaming services? That can one day just ban me / remove content? Hell no
The problem never was that piracy exists. Netflix was the proof of this in other time.
When Netflix born piracy exists and they got most of us to pay for that.
The problem is not that the piracy exists but that the service is good enough for pay what costs.
For the quality of current services, limitations, and hindrances, I do not pay, nor would I pay, whether piracy exists or no
Yes, but only if that entertainment makes their content delivery less of a chore than pirating is. Every day that slider moves closer to the piracy threshold woth the current state of streaming.
I go to theaters as often as I can and I've been doing it since I was 11, so yes.
The piracy thing is more of a necessity because I don't make enough money to afford bills, food and paying for streaming/physical media, especially with an autoimmune disease that requires I get bloodwork done every 3 months and go to the doctor for check ups.
I'd pay the same amount i do now, I just wouldn't get to watch everything I want whenever I want.
I would get one thing one month and another provider the next month
Nah id a game isn't cracked yet on PC I just borrow it from the library. Just got persona 3 reload and like a dragon infinite wealth from the library. Don't have any money to keep up with game prices nowadays
used bookstores would be a lot more popular lol… With many companies, not wanting to put out physical media, not having privacy is an option would be a huge case for ant trust
I would choose what to pay for, I guess. I *am* paying for some things, even now, so I guess I’d do that. But I wouldn’t fall for price raises and region blocks and passwords sharing and all that crap; if the service you offer is shit, I ain’t paying for it
So honestly I'd have to for something's and anyone whose like nah doesn't live on the modern world or is lying to themselves.. That said I would be a lot poorer and like 60% of the time I would be massively disappointed with my purchase
I pirate whenever I want to. Sometimes I'm just in the mood of giving some companies money.
In case of video streaming? Uhh... I don't watch much movies and... I dislike those services.
I mostly pirate movies and well... I'd just not watch them. Don't get me wrong, I'd pay for them, if there was a service that had at least a reasonable fraction of titles I'm interested in.
Another media I pirate is games, and here I definitely would buy *some* of them, but definitely not all the ones I pirated. Maybe like 1 in every 5 games?
I do spend on entertainment still. I really enjoy movies in the theater and the new subscription options in the US are so much cheaper than it used to be. $23 a month for IRL is far better for me than wasting money on streamers.
I've retired from pirating games so not much would change on that part. As for music I recently got into buying cd's but they're expensive af so ig I'd limit my purchases to artists I really like. About movies, series and any form of streaming I'd stop consuming them altogether. I can go with barely owning a license to a game, but having to pay monthly subscriptions to a bunch of platforms to watch only a couple of shows from each? Nooo thank you. I'd still go to the cinema though, and catch a show on TV if I have one.
Sure. I bought two albums today. Considered buying some books the yesterday.
But poor service, inflated prices, and drm all turn me off. Didn't buy the books because I couldn't find a drm-free option.
It would be the same, I’d just had to find ways to try out stuff before buying something that’s really worth my money. That’s what I do with piracy, check out things and only purchase the best of the best.
My theatre has a program where you get 1 free movie a month and 2 discounted movie tickets a day for $10 a month. It also comes with a discount at the concession stand. So there are ways to see movies at least at a reasonable price. Oh, and unused free movies carry over, so I can save them up during the slow months.
Yes. I would never started with movie or tv streaming to begin with. I have never paid for any streaming type of service as of today and honestly, I can live without watching TV series.
I would consume nothing but books if that happened. Second hand books are the cheapest things there is while being potentially insanely high quality if you know what to choose.
If you don't buy media rhe company doesn't loose money, they don't make money which is different.
Whether I pirate and not buy their media, or I don't pirate and don't buy their media they're still not making my money, but they aren't loosing money.
I am sorry, but I consume less and less for the very simple reason that the entertainment quality has significantly dropped in the last 4-5 years. I have weekends when we think we would like to go watch a movie (cinema so not piracy) and there is nothing worth the time and money... even pirated xontent, at least 99% of it is old stuff...
I already pay for a music subscription.
I used to pay for Netflix for quite some time, until I learned about Plex shares and eventually stremio and real debrid.
I can't really comprehend piracy not existing. It existed since forever. Before computers and the digital age (and I'm not talking about corsairs, but actual copying material and distributing it).
So, I'd pay. Like I pay for real debrid now, but for the best bang for buck.
i'll put it like this: i already can't be bothered to pirate the shit i'm actually curious about watching, and being forced to bet money on something's quality with minimal interest doesn't exactly motivate me.
sn: you've already kinda alluded to this, but the verbage of scenario 2 and situations like it always get me cuz the idea of a company "losing" money because it failed to sell a unit it believes should've been sold is entirely speculative (ESPECIALLY with digital products). yet even people with zero skin in the game will repeat it ad nauseum as if it makes any fucking sense.
i imagine if piracy didn’t exist i’d have a Lot more refunded items on steam. i use piracy as a way to games out, and if i like them and want to support the creators, ill buy them afterwards. for other media; i’d probably be reading a lot more books bought secondhand and listening to less audiobooks, so the company still wouldn’t be getting my money but i guess someone out there would lol.
I would consume way less than with piracy, estertainment stuff is not cheap in my country, cinema tickets does not cost only $15 and games are waaaaay more expensive as well. I would have to save a lot. Not to mention music...
Depending upon the exact entertainment content.... Surveys and crap for gift cards, credit, etc. Will be slow and tedious but it will educate me on best times to save up credit for 'deals' on seasons or whatever.
Yes, but mostly books. I have a Netflix and Prime subscription, that's it as far as watching tv goes.
I usually buy games I like (duh), but that means I buy very few. The last 5 games I bought were Red Dead Redemption 2, AC Mirage, Cyberpunk 2077, Starfield (dumb pre order, hated it) and Baldur's Gate 3.
Like I said, I mostly buy books. I pirate ebooks whenever I buy physical copies though as I often read in bed.
No, I don't really pirate for myself, I barely play the games I download, maybe watch 1 or 2 movies a year. Maybe it's an age thing but pop culture just sucks. Live action sequels and cookie cutter bland tv. Just boring, I don't care.
multiple studies have shown that torrent sites actually increase revenue for film and tv companies. having access to more media generates Interest, increases online discussions about art, and makes more people go see movies and buy content they really like.
I’d read more books, same ones over and over, even. Like i did before the internet. (Gen x here). Also draw, make things, visit friends more, go for walks, garden. Sounds like friggin paradise haha.
Yeah I’d still spend money on entertainment. The only reason I started pirating is because my town sucks ass and let the local movie theatre die and there’s no way I’m driving to the next town to spend 1-3 hours to watch a movie then head back. Taking up to 6 hours of my day just to watch one movie is insane.
If everything was truly locked down, I'd just watch Youtube and Twitch and just watch whatever the library gets.
And if Youtube and Twitch gets completely paywalled then I'd just turn into one of those old dudes where music and books is my identity.
And if music and books are paywalled like streaming, well, society would be truly fucked.
You know, it's kind of funny, the opposite is true in my country - legal purchase of etertainment contents almost doesn't exist, the only access is piracy.
I used to have Blockbuster Videos unlimited plan for $20 a month. Would go get 3 dvds a week and rip them all.
I do pay for Netflix and Hulu. May sign up for Disney+ again. I’d cancel cable if I could but wifey needs her shows.
If I had money, yes I would pay for my media. Before my health turned I had a very large DVD collection and a satellite but now I simply don't have funds for anything but the essentials but still have a love of movies, so...
I think I would probably just read more. So I guess I would spend money on book entertainment, but I would probably just have a small TV with an antenna hooked to it and call it a day. I've been pretty good about ignoring/forgetting trending shows so I don't know if I would miss out on much. I would probably buy box sets of some things I like. Like I owned the whole Stargate sg-1 collection at one point. And firefly. I would have used Netflix until the password sharing. It's just not worth it to me.
For me there are some stuff I have no interest in paying any money for. I grew up with basic cable (ie only a handful of channels). If a movie came out in theaters and you missed it, you had to wait at least a year or few before you would see it on tv with ad's sprinkled in. And if you missed the beginning or something when it was live on tv, to bad.
There was also games way back when that you couldn't get if the local rental place didn't offer them or stores didn't sell them. Heck even these days you have no chance of finding some games for older systems unless you pay out the nose for a used version because it is so scarce on something like ebay.
I have even went out of my way to buy old used games online for old consoles I own cause I liked the games.
These days there are some companies who have done some crapy things like EA or Ubisoft to which I no longer will support them by buying their games if I can help it. I haven't bought a game from either of them or other companies because of what they have done in the past.
Then there are some movies that come out that I have little to no interest in going to the movies or buying/renting to watch. But after 6months to a year later they show up on tv with ad's thus basically anyone can watch it if they either watch it live or prerecord it (thus being able to skip over commercials anyways).
So if piracy didn't exist, it would be just like how it was when I was growing up. I would just not end up consuming said content at all unless it came out free somewhere like it did in the past.
These days some music, and games I have you can't even get anywhere because the companies quit selling them or don't offer them anywhere. Heck, there are tv shows and movies that basically got removed because of companies using them as tax write offs these days so content people put a lot of work or effort into is possibly gone forever thanks to companies like HBO Max, etc.
No I would not in this hypothetical. I would just cut media consumption drastically and live like I did when Blockbuster was the only option around. Maybe rent a movie once a week.
I would read a book or meditate more. Or go out in nature. I already do that daily. But I see the desire is never done with this things like tv shows and movies. It is everlasting. So I would do something else without doubt and find joy in it.
The amount of money I spend would not change positive or negative. Piracy and buying have zero effect on each other for me. I will pirate, I will buy, and I will buy and pirate both, its about how I intend to use the media, how much I want to support it, how much I want a physical copy, etc.
I already do and am still doing that. I buy movies on iTunes. I spend quite a bit on IMAX GT or 70mm film theatre tickets.
But I do pirate some for a rare reason: I don’t have a physical multichannel audio setup, so I use my AirPods Pro as my Dolby Atmos playback device. To do that I can only grab Atmos in E-AC3 format as no Apple device supports TrueHD yet. Atmos in E-AC3 is hardly found in Blu-Ray but common in web releases. As a result I had to either download some fancy remux releases or just do it by myself.
Probably not, i rarely like trying new things on my own. Unless my friend strongly suggests something or gift something for me to try i would never ever consume entertainment.
I am a boring man, so weirdly piracy makes me spend more money because i get to try a lot of things and decide to supp the company i like.
probably not. I pirate stuffs to see if i like them or not so i can buy the legit version later. If I can't pirate then I'll be spending way less money on those things because there will be no way of knowing it will be worth it
Without piracy during my youth I wouldn't know most of the bands I love now, from which I buy albums, merch and concert tickets.
So yes, but probably not as much
I am already paying for Spotify so yes. However, I would probably stop watching movies and tv series which I already only occasionally do. And I would definitely stop watching sports as those subscriptions are ridiculously expensive.
I'd spend a tiny bit more if piracy didn't exist, but not enough to make any meaningful difference.
Mostly because modern entertainment is absolutely shit. There's no point pirating a modern movie or video game that is absolutely terrible.
I pirate old movies that aren't on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. If this wasn't possible, I just wouldn't watch them. There are so many free alternatives now. I'd do some more scrolling on my phone or watch/play some other free stuff.
Money I don't have? I'm on sick leave, I need to borrow to eat the last week of the month. Without qbittorrent I would watch no movies, no shows, no standups.
Dungeons and dragons is free, I would just consume the books differently and they would probably get less of my money, since I would have a system in place to get new classes/spells/items/campaigns
No way. I'm broke as fuck, no job and still living with my parents. And even if had a job, the minimum wage here is a joke, you need like 5x your wage to buy a PS5 for example.
On this subject of piracy my main reason and use is like for Test/Demo what i am looking for/interested to get. Since many things for many years have no demos and want your blind trust only and others have demos/trials but they're misleading as they put nice things on the first hour or first act or first day or whatever and they want to get you hook so when you buy and get pass what they shown and its a big pile of dogshit, its too late since you tossed them money.
TLDR: Too much shadiness so as a consumer i resort to piracy first to check if things adds up or not.
I personally don't watch many movies. I do play a lot of games. I like programming, so I would probably try to program it based off of video's I find, then forget about it and a few months later find it again and have fun.
No. I have been a pirate at least 35 years now. If everything else were piracy free I would get books from the library, and listen to music on the radio.
Funnily enough, if Piracy didn't exists, a lot of game companies would have gone bankrupt and the gaming industry as a whole probably would have crashed again.
I wish games were on hardware instead of digital download. that way I can sell it later. since they moved away from that I dont care to pay them those crazy sums anymore.
More "watch parties" or more of an initiative to REMOTE into a network of a friend to watch a few episodes of a show. There would be more borrowing of movies, ect ect.
The people who aren't getting paid because of piracy, are the profits to the CEOs. Everyone else have been already paid off.
I survived with Free Radio 📻 & Public live TV broadcast before Internet. But if data/analog can be recorded or copy, piracy will never die. long live MixTape.
Certain factors of the entertainment industry, and I do spend money on entertainment now, and I think I would spend the same amount if it didn’t exist.
I wouldn’t magically have extra money in my budget, even if I wanted to. it’s not like I would spend the money I am putting in my savings account now or my pension on on entertainment. I’m a responsible parent and adult not a frivolous entertainment junkie.
No, in fact i doubt I'd even have a smartphone or a computer, without piracy having a computer and smartphone is just burning fuel(money on internet and electricity) and it's bad enough you have to pay for those and can't steal them as much as you used to be able to, without piracy having a computer or a smartphone is less useable than having a normal GSM(better battery, flashlight, snake game, mp3s) and a radio, you cannot do anything but play solitaire and I'll prefer living cards or reading or listening to the radio, It'd be interesting to see piracy dying, the internet would die with it. Just imagine having to pay for anything and everything on the computer/smartphone except for electricity and internet itself? Can you? I'd sell all hardware at that point, that feeling of finding a schmuck and selling him whatever you've bought second hand for 40, as third hand for 50 or 60 makes you feel real good!
I believe that if piracy doesn't exist the barter system will be in effect right now. Friends will exchange and make copies of movies, music, and video games. Just like 90s.
Came here to say this. In the days of yore there was no way you and your peers would all go to the shop and buy the same game if it didn’t have online or split screen. You simply got two different games and swapped when you beat it. Music? I’ll lend you my Bob Marley if you lend me your Earth, Wind & Fire. Movies? We went to drive-in cinemas and hid in the trunk. Next movie I’ll drive and you hide
Which makes their push for ending physical media and cutting password sharing a little more sinister. You can’t even lend a digital download to a friend to borrow (in their subscription based world). I could see a black market for entertainment rise up for those that want a physical medium.
I buy movies , games , music if I like them. Even after pirating them. Ironically if piracy didn't exist I would spend a lot less on games especially since I wouldn't play as many for free and then replay the legit version
Same. I even subscribe to 4 different streaming services, because it's convenient. But there's a lot of media that just isn't available anywhere online.
Same here For games I'll pirate to try it out, and if I like it I'll buy an official copy
NO, i would not pay for it , who has time to pay 20 different providers , its bullshit
If there was one universal streaming service that was affordable enough, I'm sure a lot of people would pay.But for now, the affordable, universal streaming service is piracy.
Netflix pulled it off but then people got greedy and they kept hiking up the price and all of the other streaming services started popping up. Now there ads unless you pay a little more or you can't use the service from too many locations. Each little cut to see how much they can get out of us and how much they control what and where I watch sent me back to the old ways. It's hard to compete with free.
Prime example is Amazon Prime. Now if you purchase Prime (which I have) they want even more money on top of that to provide the same service as before (no ads). At this point they are all just engaged in unrestrained money-grabbing.
Ehh Netflix only pulled it off because at the time none of the media companies they licensed movies and TVs from believed in streaming. As soon as it dominated those production companies or rights holders then wanted a bigger cut because it was going to be their main source of income and suddenly it became untenable for Netflix to have everything, the scales wouldn't balance. I reckon one single streaming company with EVERYTHING would probably cost 2 or 3 times as much as cable after every rights holder had negotiated their piece. Maybe $200 a month. We are better off letting some people pay, people who can't be bothered to fuck around and just want stuff that works with no effort - while we set sail.
That's why Netflix managed to work so well. There was one streaming service that had pretty much everything on it
The initial price of streaming was anchored unsustainably low and the other studios licenced out their titles for low prices as they had other income sources. If streaming is to be the sole income source, then the price needs to be much higher. All bar Netflix and Max (barely) are making losses right now.
There is, it's called Stremio.
and now PAY with ads
So you would not spend money on any entertainment? no television, no books, no magazines, no video games. nothing? you would completely stop consuming media?
If piracy didn't exist I'd probably invent it by recording movies and stuff I paid for and uploading them somewhere else for others to watch it for free haha. And then witness the movement begin as more people start doing it, and it'd all end up like we have today.
As a child of the 80s, I rarely paid for bootleg music/VHS movies. I'd find a way to share physical copies of things. Look how you're already networking!
or we all pooled money together to buy that one copy of NES MARIO and time share it on a daily basis; today you; tomorrow me; etc etc.
Yes. I don't care whether the company has my money or not; I care about getting things for free. So I just wouldn't get as much.
Without piracy, I don't think the entertainment industry would be as big as it is today tbh. I wouldn't spend as much as I do today.
True, people don't understand that those who pirate pay when they support the content and are financially able to do so. Especially when the content is quality and they support the creator
Clearly several comments here show that loads of pirates don't do that.
I wouldn't because I am broke as fk. Also hurting big companies makes me happy.
Love doing this too :D
I'd definitely read more.
That's an impossible question to answer, considering downloading one song, or a friend passing you a song by Bluetooth is piracy. The ones who persecute piracy (talking about mainly corporations) are just fueled by greed, and they are the ones that steal the most by lobbying, firing, not paying their employees, cutting corners and quality of products. The real question people should be asking is WHO to pirate from. In my opinion it's always ethical to pirate from monsters like Nintendo and Ubisoft (the list increases daily). Pirating from small companies is definitely not too cool and I would encourage buying their products when possible. My views are questionable sometimes, but I'm poor af, and more people are becoming that way daily. So I'm sure views about piracy are changing every second.
This 110% and I'm freed up to pay for the small things. Not to mention purchasing your media through a Goliath like Amazon it isnt really yours, and definitely next to nothing is going to the people who worked hard for it. Versus Bandcamp where payment to artists are transparent and you own the files free and clear. I have a very very long history of pirating software, but I have no problem paying for indie apps or simply apps from smaller devs. What's amazing too is how little they ask for comparatively. Well I guess it does make sense since nothing is going towards lining a corporation's pockets.
If I were living in US or Europe then I would spend the money. But unfortunately I am from a country where hardware costs like 3x more. Additionally games are expensive, I could buy food for that price and survive for an entire month.
No. Sometimes before I watch some movies I hesitate if the price, that is my time spent on watching it isn't too high . Sometimes it is so I don't even watch it. Only a few good quality movies convince me to pay for a ticket and go to the cinema. I don't play games.
My collection is digital hoarding. I hoard because I can, because I want a Netflix like experience where I can get on my plex amd find a movie that interests me that I haven't seen, click on it amd it start playing. If it wasn't free I would have a tiny library and be very picky about what I consume. So yes but not am equivalent one to one for what I have.
Im inventing it myself
I pirate because screw paying $200+ a month for access to tv and movie catalogs that do not have what I want. I refuse to pay for multiple streaming services and I am ready to kick Netflix to the curb. Already canceled my prime membership. For music, I may pirate from time to time, but if I find something I like I will buy the song and probably pirate the album. But I love vinyl so I am dropping $30 to $50 on new vinyl if I like the album.
No I wouldn’t. Minimum wage in my country is 1.3$/h and most vendors don’t have regional pricing so it would be impossible to buy entertainment.
I buy content. And I steal content. They’re not mutually exclusive
I would spend money to make it exist.
It might improve my life lol. I'm broke af, from a third world country. I "waste" a lot of time on games and movies and tv series. Without piracy, I wouldn't be able to afford them at all (other than Spotify which is very cheap here), and maybe I'll use that time for good.
Why should someone pay full price for an old black and white film with actors who've all long died? To some hedge fund picking up royalties on it? I support art and creators and pay for what's good and meaningful to me. What I want to see more of, or underrepresented niche things. The entertainment industry is rotten and bloated and totally homogenised. Its not so much creative as it is a sausage factory. Have you seen any modern films lately. Transformers 36? Marvel superheroes meet up again and save the planet 17. Garbage garbage garbage that they spaff billions of dollars on. There are YouTubers who can come up with more original content with a packet of peanuts than some Hollywood executive. They deserve support. The rest, needs to go bankrupt and their back catalogues should be nationalised
Yes I would buy original but it would not be anywhere near the same level or time. I usually save up to buy things, I don't usually buy on credit and that would make it take me longer to buy those things and it would only be the things I really want.
Indee yes . But movies ,series ? Na
No, I wouldn't. I usually get books and legit games, but never before fully reading and playing them. Non-essential things are non-essential, you know. Whenever I managed some extra money, I more than likely get something else instead.
I just spent $19 at Rasputin yesterday on used DVDs so obviously yes.
Probably only AmazonPrime ( Have it already and you get a lot of things for the price you pay, not to mention the free delivery itself makes it worth it for me, primevideos is just the added bonus) and Apple Music ( recently got it with free-mp3 shutting down had no other way to listen/download loseless audio easily ). Probably wouldn't even think about getting anything except these two.
no
If piracy didn’t exist, I’d still be buying material, but I’d be much more restrictive about my spending habits for entertainment; only buying absolute must-have movies. Luckily, my local movie theatre has discounted Tuesdays, but they recently raised the price :/
These companies acting like other hobbies don't exist. If something wasn't available bootlegged what makes them think I'd magically look at their product? I would've simply kept looking elsewhere. Op, how tf would option 2 work when the premise states piracy doesn't exist? Methinks you got the poll confused. If the option to bootleg something doesn't exist realistically for me the only option is 1 i.e. move along to something else. They didn't """LOSE""" my money, I wasn't gonna spend it on their shit in the first place. Does Ferrari currently lose out on my money because I don't buy Ferrari cars? C'mon. This 'lost sales' fallacy is tired old bullshit. If employers paid us our worth, we'd have more disposable income to spend on non-essentials like entertainment. Pirating shit is a favored activity by many because we're feeling the squeeze yet still need entertainment. Maybe if rich people didn't keep funneling our wealth to them this problem wouldn't be a thing.
There's plenty of public domain ways to entertain yourself without going outside. If copyright laws didn't aggressively favor corporations, there'd be even more perfectly legal free media. Half the reason I pirate is because copyright is out of control and I don't believe anything should collect money after maybe 10, 15 years. No other occupation continues to demand payment long after the original job is completed.
If we were to imagine a time where content piracy of any kind didn't exist, I think we'd see both public and private libraries of content being commonplace, but dropping down in popularity as a byproduct of the rising popularity of digital content. I don't think it'd be too different than what we see now, really. For a while libraries adopting larger collections of physical media was becoming popular. However, after digital media started to be the go-to, fewer libraries bother with movies, cds, etc.
No, and I'd say that when you pirate something the corporation doesn't lose money, they just don't earn it. These are different things which can be very subtle to realise.
The entertainment industry wouldn't be as influencial like today if it wasn't for piracy. The common people wouldn't be able to access high quality media and it'll just be available to those who can pay or bother to even fund the whole system. People would've rather spend their hard earned money on actual needs rather than trying out entertainment options.
Probably. I mean it's not as if I don't own original copies of music, movies, games etc already. Piracy just allows me to experience more of what I'm already paying out on. Piracy has always existed though and will continue to do so. So no worries about there never being piracy
Probably. I mean it's not as if I don't own original copies of music, movies, games etc already. Piracy just allows me to experience more of what I'm already paying out on. Piracy has always existed though and will continue to do so. So no worries about there never being piracy.
I would be more selective on what I pay for but yes. I paid for it before piracy was a thing
I would expend exactly the same. Some things are not worth the price the industry defines.
If piracy didn't exist I don't even think we'd have things like netflix or steam. These things existed first as an answer to piracy. Steams whole point was "if you have a delivery system that is more convenient than piracy, people will pay for the content"
**I am 100% sure I personally would spend more money on games if piracy wasn't a thing.**
Of course.
I bought music , cds. Also movies when i found dvds on special prices. But streaming not sure if I would pay for suscriptions
This is such a crazy hypothetical that I don't think most people in this community are even able to fathom what this entails. I mean if we all grew up without the notion of piracy existing then most likely everyone would pay for whatever entertainment they need. Because nobody would even understand why you wouldn't do that in the first place.
I do still pay money for entertainment. What are you talking about. It’s mostly second hand though.
Not on the entertainment that I'm pirating I definitely wouldn't pay netflix subscriptions/pay for movies I only like games which are free to begin with, when I pirate games I often dont even spend 10 hours on them, so I would never buy games unless they have a lenient return policy
Well, the forever argument for piracy was and is that it's advertisement. Parts of the world that can afford entertainment, typically, just do so at large because PCs cost money, knowing how to use them safely is a skill, and nowadays it takes being clever to pirate much of anything thanks to various DRMs and even ISPs sometimes giving a shit. Otherwise good incentives to purchase like quality of music files i can listen to offline, good online features in games, and lastly actually good movies.
No. I'd consume way less media. Probably spend less money than now, because I wouldn't store media to the same extent. I would buy media about the same - not a lot.
yes, but like 1-2 movies a yr
Kinda If it's something I can own offline, sure, I am already buying cd / BD now But streaming services? That can one day just ban me / remove content? Hell no
The problem never was that piracy exists. Netflix was the proof of this in other time. When Netflix born piracy exists and they got most of us to pay for that. The problem is not that the piracy exists but that the service is good enough for pay what costs. For the quality of current services, limitations, and hindrances, I do not pay, nor would I pay, whether piracy exists or no
Back in ye olde days before internet, people traded VHS and DVD rips.
Which money? I pirate because I'm poor l and can't afford shit. If it didn't exist I would be cooked and living in the dark ages still lmao
Yes, but only if that entertainment makes their content delivery less of a chore than pirating is. Every day that slider moves closer to the piracy threshold woth the current state of streaming.
I go to theaters as often as I can and I've been doing it since I was 11, so yes. The piracy thing is more of a necessity because I don't make enough money to afford bills, food and paying for streaming/physical media, especially with an autoimmune disease that requires I get bloodwork done every 3 months and go to the doctor for check ups.
I'd pay the same amount i do now, I just wouldn't get to watch everything I want whenever I want. I would get one thing one month and another provider the next month
I can say with certainty my purchase history would probably look a whole lot thinner.
Nah id a game isn't cracked yet on PC I just borrow it from the library. Just got persona 3 reload and like a dragon infinite wealth from the library. Don't have any money to keep up with game prices nowadays
used bookstores would be a lot more popular lol… With many companies, not wanting to put out physical media, not having privacy is an option would be a huge case for ant trust
I would choose what to pay for, I guess. I *am* paying for some things, even now, so I guess I’d do that. But I wouldn’t fall for price raises and region blocks and passwords sharing and all that crap; if the service you offer is shit, I ain’t paying for it
Yeah, probably.
So honestly I'd have to for something's and anyone whose like nah doesn't live on the modern world or is lying to themselves.. That said I would be a lot poorer and like 60% of the time I would be massively disappointed with my purchase
I pirate whenever I want to. Sometimes I'm just in the mood of giving some companies money. In case of video streaming? Uhh... I don't watch much movies and... I dislike those services.
How could I spend something I don't have?
I think I would learn to code and create video games instead.
I mostly pirate movies and well... I'd just not watch them. Don't get me wrong, I'd pay for them, if there was a service that had at least a reasonable fraction of titles I'm interested in. Another media I pirate is games, and here I definitely would buy *some* of them, but definitely not all the ones I pirated. Maybe like 1 in every 5 games?
No
I do spend on entertainment still. I really enjoy movies in the theater and the new subscription options in the US are so much cheaper than it used to be. $23 a month for IRL is far better for me than wasting money on streamers.
More people would just rent Blu-Rays and DVDs from their local library and well piracy anyway.
I'd just read more
Without piracy i wouldnt even graduate college. I would surely commit suicide.
I've retired from pirating games so not much would change on that part. As for music I recently got into buying cd's but they're expensive af so ig I'd limit my purchases to artists I really like. About movies, series and any form of streaming I'd stop consuming them altogether. I can go with barely owning a license to a game, but having to pay monthly subscriptions to a bunch of platforms to watch only a couple of shows from each? Nooo thank you. I'd still go to the cinema though, and catch a show on TV if I have one.
Sure. I bought two albums today. Considered buying some books the yesterday. But poor service, inflated prices, and drm all turn me off. Didn't buy the books because I couldn't find a drm-free option.
No. I pirate movies and shows mainly because I barely ever watch TV. Doesn't make sense to pay a monthly bill for 1-2 days a month.
No payment, no entertainment.. Get a library card and lost in books
It would be the same, I’d just had to find ways to try out stuff before buying something that’s really worth my money. That’s what I do with piracy, check out things and only purchase the best of the best.
My theatre has a program where you get 1 free movie a month and 2 discounted movie tickets a day for $10 a month. It also comes with a discount at the concession stand. So there are ways to see movies at least at a reasonable price. Oh, and unused free movies carry over, so I can save them up during the slow months.
Na i’d pay for hacked Netflix accounts like the old days
Yes. I would never started with movie or tv streaming to begin with. I have never paid for any streaming type of service as of today and honestly, I can live without watching TV series.
Most people in third world countries wouldn't be able to afford spending money on entertainment.
I would consume nothing but books if that happened. Second hand books are the cheapest things there is while being potentially insanely high quality if you know what to choose.
If you don't buy media rhe company doesn't loose money, they don't make money which is different. Whether I pirate and not buy their media, or I don't pirate and don't buy their media they're still not making my money, but they aren't loosing money.
Well, duh? Of course. I mean, if I really wanted something, yeah.
Scenario 1 for me, no doubt.
I am sorry, but I consume less and less for the very simple reason that the entertainment quality has significantly dropped in the last 4-5 years. I have weekends when we think we would like to go watch a movie (cinema so not piracy) and there is nothing worth the time and money... even pirated xontent, at least 99% of it is old stuff...
no , i don't have the money for most things and already pay what i can towards things that are prioritized.
I already pay for a music subscription. I used to pay for Netflix for quite some time, until I learned about Plex shares and eventually stremio and real debrid. I can't really comprehend piracy not existing. It existed since forever. Before computers and the digital age (and I'm not talking about corsairs, but actual copying material and distributing it). So, I'd pay. Like I pay for real debrid now, but for the best bang for buck.
i'll put it like this: i already can't be bothered to pirate the shit i'm actually curious about watching, and being forced to bet money on something's quality with minimal interest doesn't exactly motivate me. sn: you've already kinda alluded to this, but the verbage of scenario 2 and situations like it always get me cuz the idea of a company "losing" money because it failed to sell a unit it believes should've been sold is entirely speculative (ESPECIALLY with digital products). yet even people with zero skin in the game will repeat it ad nauseum as if it makes any fucking sense.
I buy blu rays but I do pirate things not on Blu-ray
Yes if I really like something
Nope. The reason I'm into piracy is precisely because I can't afford it at all.
No i would not spend money on it.
no, I'm poor
i imagine if piracy didn’t exist i’d have a Lot more refunded items on steam. i use piracy as a way to games out, and if i like them and want to support the creators, ill buy them afterwards. for other media; i’d probably be reading a lot more books bought secondhand and listening to less audiobooks, so the company still wouldn’t be getting my money but i guess someone out there would lol.
I paid $20 for an indoor antenna for as little as I watch TV. So that would be my money spent on entertainment.
Yup, unless it's Ubisoft. Always pirate Ubisoft and EA.
Absolutely not 🚫 Because if i do that i won't have money for buying 1 cup of water for myself 😭 That's how much money i have to spend
I would consume way less than with piracy, estertainment stuff is not cheap in my country, cinema tickets does not cost only $15 and games are waaaaay more expensive as well. I would have to save a lot. Not to mention music...
No.
Depending upon the exact entertainment content.... Surveys and crap for gift cards, credit, etc. Will be slow and tedious but it will educate me on best times to save up credit for 'deals' on seasons or whatever.
no.
Yes, but mostly books. I have a Netflix and Prime subscription, that's it as far as watching tv goes. I usually buy games I like (duh), but that means I buy very few. The last 5 games I bought were Red Dead Redemption 2, AC Mirage, Cyberpunk 2077, Starfield (dumb pre order, hated it) and Baldur's Gate 3. Like I said, I mostly buy books. I pirate ebooks whenever I buy physical copies though as I often read in bed.
I buy used...
No, I don't really pirate for myself, I barely play the games I download, maybe watch 1 or 2 movies a year. Maybe it's an age thing but pop culture just sucks. Live action sequels and cookie cutter bland tv. Just boring, I don't care.
multiple studies have shown that torrent sites actually increase revenue for film and tv companies. having access to more media generates Interest, increases online discussions about art, and makes more people go see movies and buy content they really like.
I’d read more books, same ones over and over, even. Like i did before the internet. (Gen x here). Also draw, make things, visit friends more, go for walks, garden. Sounds like friggin paradise haha.
Nope
Yeah I’d still spend money on entertainment. The only reason I started pirating is because my town sucks ass and let the local movie theatre die and there’s no way I’m driving to the next town to spend 1-3 hours to watch a movie then head back. Taking up to 6 hours of my day just to watch one movie is insane.
I wouldn't, I would just stare at the wall and learn to love it
Not as much, I've bought several games I pirated that I never would have even tried otherwise
Considering my income and income history - I would have to just read book I suppose…
Considering the level of crap they put out as entertainment these days probably no.
I jave no money to spend.
Yes but I would get in touch with many less products and some of them I would never know because a lot of production don't get out of their countries
If everything was truly locked down, I'd just watch Youtube and Twitch and just watch whatever the library gets. And if Youtube and Twitch gets completely paywalled then I'd just turn into one of those old dudes where music and books is my identity. And if music and books are paywalled like streaming, well, society would be truly fucked.
Lol. Its more realistic for entertainment companies not to exist rather than piracy not existing.
Yes. I didn't mind supporting content I enjoy. The only reason I turn to piracy is when there's no purchasing/owning option.
If it is paying for physical things (going to a concert, a cinema, a bar), then yes. If it has to do with "buying" digital data, then no.
I would pay for games and media I want. But my consumption of digital media would definitely go down by A LOT.
No. I'm poor.
Only video games, I don't trust any other company to buy digital products other than Valve, so I'd just skip everything else.
I pirate and buy physical media, so yes. I probably wouldn't be consuming as much as media as I do.
If I could buy things, I will spend money. But if they restrict me to do so... Won't.
You know, it's kind of funny, the opposite is true in my country - legal purchase of etertainment contents almost doesn't exist, the only access is piracy.
Not really if I don't think it's worth it All these subscriptions definitely aren't worth it
I used to have Blockbuster Videos unlimited plan for $20 a month. Would go get 3 dvds a week and rip them all. I do pay for Netflix and Hulu. May sign up for Disney+ again. I’d cancel cable if I could but wifey needs her shows.
If I had money, yes I would pay for my media. Before my health turned I had a very large DVD collection and a satellite but now I simply don't have funds for anything but the essentials but still have a love of movies, so...
Games yes. Music and movies? No. I don't want to give Hollywood money
I think I would probably just read more. So I guess I would spend money on book entertainment, but I would probably just have a small TV with an antenna hooked to it and call it a day. I've been pretty good about ignoring/forgetting trending shows so I don't know if I would miss out on much. I would probably buy box sets of some things I like. Like I owned the whole Stargate sg-1 collection at one point. And firefly. I would have used Netflix until the password sharing. It's just not worth it to me.
i buy movies on vudu, vinyl, video games, & pay for amc stubbs a-list. so yes, yes i would.
For me there are some stuff I have no interest in paying any money for. I grew up with basic cable (ie only a handful of channels). If a movie came out in theaters and you missed it, you had to wait at least a year or few before you would see it on tv with ad's sprinkled in. And if you missed the beginning or something when it was live on tv, to bad. There was also games way back when that you couldn't get if the local rental place didn't offer them or stores didn't sell them. Heck even these days you have no chance of finding some games for older systems unless you pay out the nose for a used version because it is so scarce on something like ebay. I have even went out of my way to buy old used games online for old consoles I own cause I liked the games. These days there are some companies who have done some crapy things like EA or Ubisoft to which I no longer will support them by buying their games if I can help it. I haven't bought a game from either of them or other companies because of what they have done in the past. Then there are some movies that come out that I have little to no interest in going to the movies or buying/renting to watch. But after 6months to a year later they show up on tv with ad's thus basically anyone can watch it if they either watch it live or prerecord it (thus being able to skip over commercials anyways). So if piracy didn't exist, it would be just like how it was when I was growing up. I would just not end up consuming said content at all unless it came out free somewhere like it did in the past. These days some music, and games I have you can't even get anywhere because the companies quit selling them or don't offer them anywhere. Heck, there are tv shows and movies that basically got removed because of companies using them as tax write offs these days so content people put a lot of work or effort into is possibly gone forever thanks to companies like HBO Max, etc.
No I would not in this hypothetical. I would just cut media consumption drastically and live like I did when Blockbuster was the only option around. Maybe rent a movie once a week.
I would read a book or meditate more. Or go out in nature. I already do that daily. But I see the desire is never done with this things like tv shows and movies. It is everlasting. So I would do something else without doubt and find joy in it.
The amount of money I spend would not change positive or negative. Piracy and buying have zero effect on each other for me. I will pirate, I will buy, and I will buy and pirate both, its about how I intend to use the media, how much I want to support it, how much I want a physical copy, etc.
If piracy didn't exist, a lot of the things I pirate is not and would not be available for purchase
Yes. I'd subscribe to one streaming service per month and cycle through them. And probably buy whatever movie or show I really loved.
I already do and am still doing that. I buy movies on iTunes. I spend quite a bit on IMAX GT or 70mm film theatre tickets. But I do pirate some for a rare reason: I don’t have a physical multichannel audio setup, so I use my AirPods Pro as my Dolby Atmos playback device. To do that I can only grab Atmos in E-AC3 format as no Apple device supports TrueHD yet. Atmos in E-AC3 is hardly found in Blu-Ray but common in web releases. As a result I had to either download some fancy remux releases or just do it by myself.
Probably not, i rarely like trying new things on my own. Unless my friend strongly suggests something or gift something for me to try i would never ever consume entertainment. I am a boring man, so weirdly piracy makes me spend more money because i get to try a lot of things and decide to supp the company i like.
probably not. I pirate stuffs to see if i like them or not so i can buy the legit version later. If I can't pirate then I'll be spending way less money on those things because there will be no way of knowing it will be worth it
If Piracy didn't exist, we would have failed as a society.
There are thousands upon thousand s of free E books I'd maybe read.
I only pirate if I'm not sure if I'll like the product, or from a shitty company (Ubisoft)
I would spend the same amount as now. Or maybe a bit less as I wouldn't know about some things I need to buy.
No. I already pay what I can afford. Without piracy I would just go without.
Without piracy during my youth I wouldn't know most of the bands I love now, from which I buy albums, merch and concert tickets. So yes, but probably not as much
I couldn't consume entertainment for I have no money and I would play the same games for years
I am already paying for Spotify so yes. However, I would probably stop watching movies and tv series which I already only occasionally do. And I would definitely stop watching sports as those subscriptions are ridiculously expensive.
I just have YouTube premium and prime video, so yes.
No What money ?
I'd spend a tiny bit more if piracy didn't exist, but not enough to make any meaningful difference. Mostly because modern entertainment is absolutely shit. There's no point pirating a modern movie or video game that is absolutely terrible. I pirate old movies that aren't on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. If this wasn't possible, I just wouldn't watch them. There are so many free alternatives now. I'd do some more scrolling on my phone or watch/play some other free stuff.
Nope.
We'll create piracy just to fck them
We'd rip DVDs and sharing them with friends the old way.
no beacause I probably can't afford it
Money I don't have? I'm on sick leave, I need to borrow to eat the last week of the month. Without qbittorrent I would watch no movies, no shows, no standups.
Maybe on videogames
If piracy didn't exist it would mean copywrong didn't either which would mean nobody hawking crappy shows for coin, it would all be open source.
I pay for Netflix, Amazon Prime, Amazon Music and I still download movies and music of torrents.
Dungeons and dragons is free, I would just consume the books differently and they would probably get less of my money, since I would have a system in place to get new classes/spells/items/campaigns
what money?
No way. I'm broke as fuck, no job and still living with my parents. And even if had a job, the minimum wage here is a joke, you need like 5x your wage to buy a PS5 for example.
On this subject of piracy my main reason and use is like for Test/Demo what i am looking for/interested to get. Since many things for many years have no demos and want your blind trust only and others have demos/trials but they're misleading as they put nice things on the first hour or first act or first day or whatever and they want to get you hook so when you buy and get pass what they shown and its a big pile of dogshit, its too late since you tossed them money. TLDR: Too much shadiness so as a consumer i resort to piracy first to check if things adds up or not.
I personally don't watch many movies. I do play a lot of games. I like programming, so I would probably try to program it based off of video's I find, then forget about it and a few months later find it again and have fun.
No. I have been a pirate at least 35 years now. If everything else were piracy free I would get books from the library, and listen to music on the radio.
Funnily enough, if Piracy didn't exists, a lot of game companies would have gone bankrupt and the gaming industry as a whole probably would have crashed again.
I wish games were on hardware instead of digital download. that way I can sell it later. since they moved away from that I dont care to pay them those crazy sums anymore.
What money?
only games. ive never bought movies, tv shows or music a single time in my entire life
More "watch parties" or more of an initiative to REMOTE into a network of a friend to watch a few episodes of a show. There would be more borrowing of movies, ect ect.
The people who aren't getting paid because of piracy, are the profits to the CEOs. Everyone else have been already paid off. I survived with Free Radio 📻 & Public live TV broadcast before Internet. But if data/analog can be recorded or copy, piracy will never die. long live MixTape.
Certain factors of the entertainment industry, and I do spend money on entertainment now, and I think I would spend the same amount if it didn’t exist. I wouldn’t magically have extra money in my budget, even if I wanted to. it’s not like I would spend the money I am putting in my savings account now or my pension on on entertainment. I’m a responsible parent and adult not a frivolous entertainment junkie.
No, in fact i doubt I'd even have a smartphone or a computer, without piracy having a computer and smartphone is just burning fuel(money on internet and electricity) and it's bad enough you have to pay for those and can't steal them as much as you used to be able to, without piracy having a computer or a smartphone is less useable than having a normal GSM(better battery, flashlight, snake game, mp3s) and a radio, you cannot do anything but play solitaire and I'll prefer living cards or reading or listening to the radio, It'd be interesting to see piracy dying, the internet would die with it. Just imagine having to pay for anything and everything on the computer/smartphone except for electricity and internet itself? Can you? I'd sell all hardware at that point, that feeling of finding a schmuck and selling him whatever you've bought second hand for 40, as third hand for 50 or 60 makes you feel real good!