The pirates are back - Anew study from the European Union’s Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) suggest that online piracy has increased for the first time in years. In fact, piracy rates have bee…::We analyze a new study where the EUIPO suggests online piracy is on the increase within the European Union.
I downloaded new content for the first time in a while, recently. It’s on a streaming service that I don’t want (I pay for several).
I’d only been downloading things that I couldn’t stream (* Cannibal Holocaust*, for example) for a long time. I stopped downloading for a number of years. Guess what? My bittorrent client still works. After a number of years buying everything on blu-ray discs (and ripping to Plex) and renting from streaming services, I’m on my way to where I was. I’ll still pay for convenience. I’m done fucking around with complications.
I’ve just started dipping my toes back into the waters again too, also after many years of downloading absolutely nothing. It’s a combo of things prompting me.
First, costs have gotten out of control and prices just keep creeping up. This is happening at the same time as content libraries per service dwindle. I make more money than I used to, yet it feels like it goes not nearly as far these days with prices of everything skyrocketing.
Second, it’s becoming a bigger and bigger pain in the ass to find things. Part of the issue for me is interfaces (though I can get around that, generally). Part is content shuffling from one service to the next. But a big issue is all the trash content companies like Netflix are shitting out to pad their libraries. You have to wade through oceans of garbage to find a single thing worth your time. This experience is exactly why I dropped traditional cable years ago! I hate endless filler trash. I don’t want the illusion of a large library to make it seem like I’m getting value. I just want actual good content.