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A decade and a half on from the Pirate Bay trial, the winds have begun to shift. On an unusually warm summer’s day, I sit with fellow film critics by the old city harbour, once a haven for merchants and, rumour has it, smugglers. Cold bigstrongs in hand (that’s what they call pints up here), they start venting about the “enshittification” of streaming – enshittification being the process by which platforms degrade their services and ultimately die in the pursuit of profit. Netflix now costs upwards of 199 SEK (£15), and you need more and more subscriptions to watch the same shows you used to find in one place. Most platforms now offer plans that, despite the fee, force advertisements on subscribers. Regional restrictions often compel users to use VPNs to access the full selection of available content. The average European household now spends close to €700 (£600) a year on three or more VOD subscriptions. People pay more and get less.

According to London‑based piracy monitoring and content‑protection firm MUSO, unlicensed streaming is the predominant source of TV and film piracy, accounting for 96% in 2023. Piracy reached a low in 2020, with 130bn website visits. But by 2024 that number had risen to 216bn. In Sweden, 25% of people surveyed reported pirating in 2024, a trend mostly driven by those aged 15 to 24. Piracy is back, just sailing under a different flag.

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[-] Zephorah@discuss.online 36 points 1 day ago

It’s fine when there’s one or two high quality. The current setup is to bleed people dry.

[-] Bronzie@sh.itjust.works 8 points 23 hours ago

Spot on!

The moment music starts being split up between companies is the day I start pirating music again too.
My NAS and media NUC have soon paid for themselves from saving on streaming services. Adding music to it won't cost me a dime.

[-] kbobabob@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 18 hours ago

I'm curious what you would use for this since lidarr is effectively dead currently.

[-] Bronzie@sh.itjust.works 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

I'll admit never having used Lidarr, but if it's dead and no other good automated software exists, I'll just use the good old "search and click download"-hack.

Hopefully I won't ever have to do this, but time will tell

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[-] theangriestbird@beehaw.org 19 points 1 day ago

Can we talk about the article saying that 96% of TV and film piracy is streaming?? That one blows me away. We all talk here about downloading our own files and then self-hosting, but apparently all of us account for less than 5% of all piracy? Tf?

[-] Chewy7324@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 18 hours ago

That's why private torrent sites & Usenet Indexers are mostly ignored by law enforcement. There's bigger fish to catch than going after a minority who goes through the trouble of downloading first and then watching it. Not to mention the even smaller part who automates their downloading through the likes of *arr.

I'd argue torrent streaming (Streamio) is a major reason why many public torrent sites died over the last few years: Streaming and the big amount of users coming for the convenience paints a much bigger target on sites.

[-] Pringles@sopuli.xyz 13 points 1 day ago

I know several people who watch everything on some iptv website for free. It's one of those that bombard you with a dozen popup ads and ad overlays. It doesn't require any technical knowledge to (eventually) get it to play and you can watch what you want to. 96% seems a bit high, but it is really common. Most people aren't as tech savvy as the average lemmy user.

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[-] turkalino@lemmy.yachts 8 points 23 hours ago

That’s because a lot of people in this community are techies, most people don’t have the skills to setup a seed box so it’s much easier to just go to a streaming site in their phone browser

[-] metaStatic@kbin.earth 5 points 19 hours ago

that would legitimately blow my mind because every single streaming site I've ever found was significantly more difficult to find in the first place than downloading a torrent program and ultimately transient because they're a single point of failure that will get taken down.

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[-] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 21 hours ago

I'd add to that that even less know how to securely set up a (remotely accessible) seedbox resistant to getting hacked

It's what I do. I know for myself that torrenting would be my personal rubicon. I wouldnt be able to do it, morally speaking, without reseeding, and then I would have to start investing in a home server and get really stuck-in. I'm just not ready to do that until I'm willing to fully commit.

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[-] altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 1 day ago

Covid hungover. Everyone saw these numbers on web services, streaming, gaming, etc and thought they miss an opportunity to milk it for double, or that their product is just too essential now to quit. That confidence just sped up the degradation.

[-] TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 6 points 21 hours ago

Hi, yes its me, I am a won't pay-er. Canceled Netflix the 2nd time in a year they jacked rates. Canceled Spotify the 2nd time in a year that they jacked rates. Canceling Hulu and D+ at the end of this month. I used to torrent everything before Netflix and when Hulu was free, started paying because it was cheap and easy to see all the shows I wanted. Now streaming is just as bad and cable plans used to be so I am setting up my new seedbox now and its cheaper to pay for the premium seedbox + stream from Jellyfin and I can get back to seeing all my shows that fractured off in to streaming services I didn't pay for.

Honestly I am impressed at how far seedbox services have come, they are almost totally plug and play, very little configurations needed

[-] trillnsfw@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 1 day ago

Pretty much only pay for realdebrid and apple music

[-] MangioneDontMiss@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 day ago

Keep jacking up prices in a recession, see what happens.

[-] metaStatic@kbin.earth 2 points 19 hours ago

They're just keeping up with inflation like any rational actor would do. Why isn't your wage doing the same?

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[-] noxypaws@pawb.social 4 points 1 day ago

for-profit products can't face poverty. fuck this headline.

[-] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 day ago

Its referring to content in this case, not wealth.

As in lacking content, or only having parts of content (season 1 & 2, and then nothing until season 7).

[-] noxypaws@pawb.social 3 points 22 hours ago

ahh that makes sense

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this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2025
409 points (99.5% liked)

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