Is there such a thing as ethical media piracy? Let me ask you this: of the streaming services you use, how many of them do you personally pay for?
It’s a tale as old as time: the main goal of entertainment companies and mass media is to make money, and streaming is no different. The face of TV, film and video game distribution has changed dramatically compared to 10 years ago. Viewers watch television series on their own schedule, view new movies at home and replace physical video games with storage on a hard drive.
Even still, piracy has never gone away. So why is that?
Look at the price of cable in Lexington. Spectrum’s “TV Gold” package costs $94 a month for premium channels; additional fees for HD and a “Broadcast TV surcharge” bring it to $126.96.
The equivalent program from Dish was $74.99 a month, but the website was laid out in such a way that you couldn’t see the price without going to check-out. Given these prices and tactics, I’m not surprised that people are ditching cable
With the migration to streaming, companies have decided to move along with them. And that’s a good thing, because it means more money and time has gone into perfecting streaming services. Considering that many college students primarily consume media through their computers or mobile devices, cable is becoming a less viable business model.
The other edge of this sword, however, is the number of companies that want your money. Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, Peacock, Amazon Prime, Apple TV and many more streaming services offer original content and old favorites, but this is causing an issue similar to the one people had with cable.
If you paid for subscriptions to Amazon Prime, Apple+, Crunchyroll, the Disney+/ESPN/Hulu bundle, HBO Max, Netflix Standard, the Paramount+/Showtime bundle, Peacock and Spotify at the same time, it would cost $100.61 for a month, which is still less than cable, though not by much. Because of this, it has become harder to keep up with the shows, movies and podcasts people are talking about — unless you share passwords.
Password sharing has taken off as a result of increased pricing. A study by Magid found that 35% of millennials share their streaming information with someone else, and that’s not a bad thing.
Many streaming services already give you the option to watch on multiple screens or have multiple tailored profiles, so why shouldn’t you? And for those that don’t have access, many have started to pirate exclusive content.
Ethically, piracy is a strange …….