Netflix allows you to download videos. I've watched several episodes of Star Trek on a train this way.

Not on desktop. I hate watching movies and TV on a small phone screen.

Windows 10 desktops can download content through the app.

You can even download Netflix to your phone and watch it later.

And then it casually and silently deletes them after some unspecified time. Which has screwed me before on a long flights.

Now I always pirate media in advance I intend to watch in the air. I don't want to have to babysit my netflix downloads to make sure that they really are downloaded.

Wow, really? Yeah, that's a bit enraging. Idiosyncrasies like this should at least be exposed in the UI. An expiration countdown in this case.

Not all shows support that, though.

I have the same issue. I have a Netflix subscription, but I also pirate things that are available there e.g. via PT, because I can then just use VLC and have that better user experience, including the possibility of taking the movie onto a train.

I think the limitations on playback are an unreasonable burden. More fundamentally, I think I should have the right to gain the fullest possible degree of control and knowledge of the workings of my computing equipment without being punished by the legal system. Just like I should have the right to repair, inspect and modify the physical objects I buy, should I be allowed to do that with my computing hardware and their information contents.

In the near future neural networks will recreate full software packages just from being connected to cloud-based applications that stream video and commands back and forth from a browser window (or a VNC-like desktop client/app). The DRM systems will always be cracked, because you fundamentally can't and should not be able to control what people do with the information you give them, and eventually even running the DRM by not sending the executable code at all will not be enough to make software impossible to copy.

However, I don't think this will be a large problem, because you can still fine people for sharing copyrighted material with randoms (I'm not sure I think that's a good idea, haven't thought about it enough), and once you have enough clients that integrate content stores and payment functionality with playback, you can get a user experience that is so much better than that of Spotify.

I think the right to free computation and inspection, repair, integration and modification of computing systems should be enshrined in national constitutions, as it is as fundamental as the right to free expression, and perhaps just the newest incarnation (and necessary extension) of that same principle.