Piracy is making

Piracy is making a huge comeback and the streamers have no one to blame but themselves. Be honest. Have you downloaded or streamed something recently? Don't worry, I won't tell the cops. We don't hear too much about entertainment piracy in the news these days, but their numbers should serve as a huge warning sign to Hollywood. You see, piracy was a major issue back in the 2000s and early 2010s, and media companies were scared senseless. But then in the late 2010s, legit streaming started to take hold, and maybe Hollywood, the music industry had saved itself. Spotify evaporated music theft and Netflix offered a good deal and TV fans, and so by 2020, piracy had fallen to an all-time low. That year, piracy sites saw 130 billion visits, but in 2024, that number was up, hitting 216 billion visits. It's easy to see why. The streaming services are nickel and diming consumers, and worse, offering worse and worse experiences. For starters, all of them have been steadily increasing prices and charging more for features that used to be included. Just recently, Peacock announced it would be increasing its prices on all tiers. And last year, Apple increased its prices by 30%. And don't get me started on how Amazon suddenly added ads for all users in 2024. Then there's the issue of content libraries and availability. If you want to keep up with what's new and good, you need to subscribe to several services. And as a reminder, you don't own any of it. What's there today could be gone tomorrow. And even the digital files that you quote unquote buy, you don't actually own those because licensing deals can be revoked at any second. PlayStation users are losing access to hundreds that they bought to own. But maybe the biggest factor driving up piracy has been the password sharing crackdown. Disney, Netflix and HBO Max forced consumers to open more accounts by cutting off families from sharing passwords with each other. And that means each individual consumer has to pay more for their collected streaming services. So put all this together, and it's no wonder that piracy is on the rise.