this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2026
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me_irl
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It's easy to forget, but the vast majority of people, especially young people, mean pirate streaming sites when they say piracy.
Even the piracy subreddit seems to be mostly about them after the great Exodus.
They seem to be under the impression that those are somehow safer than torrenting, despite the opposite being true. Though I guess they're right about there being more to learn about torrents and other methods.
It hits me like a slap every time piracy comes up in conversation we'll start to get into it when they ask me what site I use to watch things. I Once answered "jellyfin?" With some confusion before they brought up like hanime or some shit. Illegal streaming sites with mountains of ads are what most people mean when they say "piracy". It's the only piracy that can really access on their iPhone anyway.
I thought the meme was about ads on torrent tracker sites.
In theory, copyright infringement is committed by the uploader, not the downloader. As such, torrenting is more dangerous if you allow it to seed instead of just leach.
Depends on the country
I mean there's more malicious threat actors involved in pirate streaming largely because it's actually very expensive to do. People aren't as likely to do it out of spite or a desire to share like on torrent sites. They must stay profitable against all odds or likely get arrested.
The ads on pirate streaming sites are often the worst out there. It's one of the few places you're still likely to find malicious code hidden in popup or banner ads. Everything else has gotten too corporate for that.
And if getting caught is what scares you about torrenting you can actually just not seed. It is an option, it's just a bit rude. Certainly not more rude than just expecting someone else to host a free streaming site for you and not try to steal your data/money/identity though.
I'm actually pretty sure this meme was made about pirate streaming sites. Hence the direct comparison saying that streaming sites inject more ads in the same way that pirate sites do. In fact I've seen almost this exact meme on Reddit and the every comment in that thread was about streaming sites because that's what they all assumed it was about, because that's what piracy is to them. I was being quite literal and direct when I brought up Reddit's take on this.
But there's so much else to pirate: games, books, music, roms. There's a wide world of content out there! (Obligatory don't pirate stuff, visit your local library and ask a librarian to hook you up. Or do. Whatever, IAALIANYL[I Am A Librarian I Am Not Your Librarian.])
I'm not saying what people should do, I'm just reporting on trends.
Pirate streaming is the bulk of piracy. Especially when you include sports. Most people just aren't tech savvy enough for torrents anymore. The next generation never learned computers. They don't torrent.