Awesome. Now we can see if the movie and media industry experience a correlated rise in profits and settle this question whether "piracy" damages these industries once and for all.
A better gauge might be the condition of the industry at the lower tiers, all the way down to some musician just trying to sell a few albums to augment their income. It's possible that the "free" content available from the top tier players helps keep the lower tier players from getting ahead in the business.
I realize it's not a perfect analogy, but I'm thinking about Microsoft in the 1980s. They made their money from OEM licenses and enterprise sales, while the "free" copies of their software erased any chance of competing with them in the consumer market.
Had they done this deliberately to discourage competition, the police would have come knocking at their door.
If you don't feel like paying, don't watch it.
If you don't feel like finding out what service a show is on, don't watch it.
If you don't like the fact that you need to subscribe to multiple streaming networks to watch the shows you want to, don't subscribe and don't watch the shows. Having 5 streaming services to subscribe to is still infinitely better than cable.
If you think piracy "sticks it to the man", you'd do a better job by not watching a show and not talking about it. Pirating the Mandalorian and gushing about it to friends, family, and the internet just helps Disney.
Edit: Please downvote me, I enjoy finding out how many people consider media consumption a fundamental human right instead of the luxury good that it is.
Regardless, ask yourself how you'd feel if the film, video game, or book you pirate was made by a close friend. Would you tell them you pirated their product? And if so, why?
As a video game creator whose digital games cost nothing to copy and distribute, I can assure you that piracy directly affects my ability to continue making games.
>Regardless, ask yourself how you'd feel if the film, video game, or book you pirate was made by a close friend. Would you tell them you pirated their product? And if so, why?
Yes. They didn't create it to brag about how good their ratings were, and pirating their content doesn't mean they aren't getting anything from me, as you yourself mentioned.
>As a video game creator whose digital games cost nothing to copy and distribute, I can assure you that piracy directly affects my ability to continue making games
No, you can't assure me of that. You can say things but would be unable to provide any proof.
>"if I can get something for free, why shouldn't I"
Any time anyone buys something they've previously pirated, this argument falls apart. Not that it needs to wait until then, "why am I paying $20 to be advertised to" breaks it too.
Convenience, pricing and social features. That's how Steam grew so big.
It takes much more effort to torrent something than to click "Add to cart" button in Steam. And even if the price is too high, one can always wait for a sale or a giveaway. Nor will a pirated copy give street cred in the form of achievements, "games owned" and "hours played".
The success of Steam, Netflix and Spotify has shown that there's plenty of money in the world, but you have to earn it by providing the best value.
I've bought Thief 2 & 3 and bunch of other games twice now, on original CDs / DVD and on Steam or GOG, and used No-CD cracks for the originals for convenience.
Pirates love to conflate their activity with the noble pursuit of freeing the world from DRM. Maybe that is true for the people on the 'scene', but the countless millions of people torrenting their releases are doing it because they simply want something for free. Your actions are very much the exception.
Panem and Circensis.. Everyone considers food to be a fundamental human right- but entertainment, that is a great stabilizer of society and actually great for the environment. It costs nothing to copy it, and allows defacto to drug the masses with electric dreams.
One of the reasons, many nations actively sabotage anti-piracy efforts, while claiming to support them. Citizen couch potatoe is the dream citizen of this lean, ecologic future tomorrow.