Once, not so long ago, streaming was more convenient than pirating. But, as expected the commercial services went through their Standard Cycle of Enshittification and now we either let ourselves get flogged by 50 competing predatory services or just take the easy way and sail the high seas.

The choice is not that hard. Yarr.

Of course this returns us to the state where the streaming companies who have literally "enshitted their own beds" now turn to legislators and policymakers (who they hated, just couple of weeks ago) to ask them to provide some "law and order" to this unruly mob and to defend the corporations right to put thumbscrews on the population for ever increasing profits.

And so it goes.

🤏🎻

I was rather happy with Netflix for nearly a decade. The price was reasonable and family members could also watch. When I moved out I upgraded to the 4K package (split 3 ways between family members) and it was fine at first.

But there were several caveats:

• 4K only works on TVs, on my 1440p monitor I could only watch 1080p. Sucked, but it's not too bad
• Price kept going up, in the end it was 18€ a month. That's okay split between 3 people, but otherwise far too much for what is offered
• Series that I liked kept getting cancelled, while trash was getting renewed or they messed up the later seasons (Looking at you, The Witcher..)
• They cracked down on password sharing, suddenly you need to be in the same WiFi to count as home or you need a travel code (limited to 2 a month and only for 2 weeks each), so if you regularly move between places it's a no-go for a service you pay for

I finally cancelled it, sick of their shit. Which also has the benefit of no longer having to take care of the account for the family. Unfortunately my dad accidentally took over the account (while trying to create a new one) and keeps paying the 4K price (I suggested at least going down to 1080p as the quality is shit either way). Simply idiotic :-/

Personally I tried out Real Debrid and it has been pretty alright so far. The quality is better too, which is ridiculous.

"Lets make 50 competing services while people have less buying power than ever. Everything will be $15 if you want anything of value. P.s. the thing you wanted leaves next month HURRY"

Cant imagine why people pirate /s

Steam has never tried to battle piracy head on, yet it succeeds. Please take note, Netflix, it is your card to lose.

Netflix literally will not take my money anymore. I had cancelled my subscription during covid because money was tight, but I was willing to temporarily re-subscribe when the next season of select shows came out. I tried to re-enable my original account, but I couldn't because they wouldn't accept my credit card. I tried different cards, then tried to make new accounts with different emails and different credit cards, but still couldn't. Netflix kept rejecting all my cards. I ran out of credit cards.

Look, I was willing to give Netflix my money, it's not my fault they were unwilling to take it.

Netflix blaming piracy is just a warning that hostile legislation will pass and all of this will be shut down. Call me pessimistic.

Says the guys that reduced piracy to a fraction of its former self before getting too greedy. Piracy wasn't affecting them, but it's a side effect of what they have become.

Hey Netflix, you need to compete on price AND the service offering. Make piracy feel inconvenient compared to paying and subscribing and you'll retain the userbase that is willing to pay. You'll never get those who aren't willing to pay no matter what.

As long as Netflix doesn't do 1080p on Firefox and reduces their price considerably and gets rid of stupid limitations on account sharing and ads, I'm never paying for it. Same for games with DRM. I'm not suffering from DRM bs when I can pirate the same without DRM. Why should i pay these asshole companies more and be more restricted than a pirate lol.

SurprisedPikachuFace.jpg

Netflix, steam, and Spotify got me out of piracy. Companies who owned the IP just decided they all wanted to replicate what Netflix did without understanding that it was impossible for more than one company to accomplish that.

The ever increasing subscription prices and rights holders pulling content have nothing to do with it at all I am sure. /s

It’s not like cable was going to vanish and leave us with this wonderful ad-free Ala carte service we've always wanted. They dangled the bait and once everyone bit they set the hook and reeled in the suckers with an even worse, and costlier, scenario. In every avenue of entertainment, marketing is there to make sure it fucking sucks. Even some of the pirate apps have ads in them. Greed ruins everything and will be remembered as the true folly of man.

Set sail mofos! 🏴‍☠️

Boohoo magic piracy is stealing all my stuffs, its not that i'm losing the content wars to other, bigger, meaner shitheads

I think Jeff Gerstmann once said "you ha e to be able to compete with free" to combat piracy. Tech companies used to understand this...

dear netflix: may i interest you in the concept of not raising prices every year, not cancelling every queer show you put out, and not catering to transphobic bigot comedians?

OH NO BOO HOO!!

Maybe you shouldn’t have become the monster you fought to destroy.