Your snide comment is way off the mark. By your tone I'm assuming you're staunchly anti-piracy and don't pirate stuff, so you don't have experience with the actual quality of pirated media.
As a long-time pirate (10+ years), I can unequivocally tell you that pirated media is lightyears ahead of anything available legally. By using just 1 (one) torrent site, I can gain access to pretty much every single movie, music album, video game (console or PC), piece of software (all platforms), and book. The downloads almost always max out my connection.
As for quality - it's better than if you buy the media. Netflix and iTunes are just now bringing out 1080p content, and it's almost definitely going to be compressed in a lossy way. I can torrent the original Bluray disc image (~50 GB) if I want to, or get a high quality X264 compressed version to save space/bandwidth. You're not forced to go with the one thing that's offered to you. Both options have been available ever since Bluray (and HDDVD) first came out. I've been watching 1080p content for years without ever buying a Blu-ray drive or any other special hardware.
And the best part of all - both the downloading process and the files I get are in standard & open formats that I can run & view on my Linux PC. What's available for download is browsed via a normal web browser, the BitTorrent protocol is open and has been implemented on Linux many times over, and I've never had any issues playing back content once it's been downloaded - the formats are open and are supported by a variety of open source media players.
Let me know when I can run iTunes or Netflix on Linux. I doubt it'll ever happen.
Oh, and VPN services don't cost $100 a month. You can get them for less than $20/month. When I was sharing a seedbox with a friend, it was $10/month for unlimited data transfer and 250 GB of storage space.
Also, if there's any problem with playback, you can fix it. A few things I use often: Brightness control, dynamic range compression (nighttime mode), subwoofer support (2 channel audio on Windows just goes out L and R; ffdshow lets me easily split low freqs to the sub).
I find this unlikely. Piracy is just a copy. It's not like anything new is actually created in the process. You are getting a very nice duplicate of the original.
You are part of the entitlement generation. Since you are so used to just getting things for free, you will just keep making excuses to pirate when the company doesn't give you exactly what you want.
This will have many consequences in the future, including:
1) Commercial software will only be serviced-based. So, instead of paying one-fee for software, you will be required to pay for it every month/year. IE: the "cloud".
2) Software developer salaries will be much lower. Although not directly related to piracy, open source being so freely available means that businesses only need people to do updates (software mechanics not engineers).
3) DRM and more protections schemes. DRM was a direct result of piracy, not the other way around.
Continue to pirate all you want, but don't be shocked at the future you helped create.
As unlikely as you may find it, it's a fact. Pirated media has none of the restrictions that legitimately obtained media does. For example, I don't have to worry about whether a new device that I've just bought will be compatible with all the media I already possess - since it's not DRM-encumbered, I'm free to do whatever neccessary to get the file onto the device.
Acquiring the media is the same - I can torrent music on my Linux PC, but I can't download music using many legitimate sources.
> You are part of the entitlement generation. Since you are so used to just getting things for free, you will just keep making excuses to pirate when the company doesn't give you exactly what you want.
Wrong. I buy media when it's provided in a cross-platform and non-DRM encumbered manner. I've purchased every single Humble Indie Bundle until now (and paid more than the average), not only because Linux & Android versions are available, but also because I can download the games from my web browser. I haven't really played the games that much, but that's not the point.
When Louis CK announced his $5 comedy special that was available online (from a web browser) in a non-DRM encumbered manner, I went and purchased it immediately, even though I don't particularly enjoy his comedy, and did the same with Aziz Ansari's comedy special as well.
The $100 a month figure I threw out was what I thought it might cost me to buy assorted 'hot media' on the market and resell it at a small margin.
I also didn't imply that your pirated media was of poor quality, but since you so proudly brought it up, looking over a single torrent site shows a broad range of quality options for a given download, which fits with my earlier snide comment.
As for your remarks about Netflix/iTunes and Linux, I consider that a feeble response. I can't buy a Ford transmission that fits my Jeep Wrangler, but that doesn't entitle me to steal cars, even if Ford makes a better transmission that fits more vehicles. And before we get into the whole "can't pirate a transmission" rhetoric, let's get out of the way that there are iTunes-like services and Netflix-like services for Linux. They exist. Sure, they aren't the exact same thing, but I honestly suspect that their non-existence is just another strawman excuse to justify pirating whatever you want without having to consider that it might actually be a harmful thing -- or you're too caught up feeling entitled to care that your cop outs are just that.
Also, these things never go anywhere. I'll just go ahead and apologize now for hitting the reply button, because I know I'm going to, but I will not respond to this. If you want to pirate things, go ahead. But I frankly am not interested in hearing how you've justified how great and open and free it is. Either you're willing to pay for the things you consume or you aren't. By my opinion, if you aren't, you aren't entitled to consume them. That's my opinion. You're welcome to yours.
It takes away from the people who design, manufacture and sell Range Rover vehicles.
To turn that analogy on its head -- identity theft is also not 'stealing'. I haven't taken anything away from the original holder of that identity, as they are decidedly still who they are. That doesn't make it victimless, and it certainly doesn't make it right.
Copying a movie you'd truly never pay for doesn't hurt. Reselling your copy does.
Making a copy uses resources and work. Copying a Land Rover would cost you more than buying a new one. Mass production and distribution lowers the price enough you can buy it cheaper than you can make it.
Studios should be thinking the same way, realizing that people will pay for convenience. To get paid more, make it more convenient. Just look through these comments to see how much "piracy" is actually about convenience.
That's because the DRM is stripped, the DRM often have many compatibility/integrity/security issues etc. that pirates never have to worry about. They are not forced to watch through FBI warnings before watching a movie.
The experience of downloading something is vastly superior to buying it in most cases, and that's assuming you can buy it at all (pirates don't have to wait/hope for a TV series to be released outside of US, for instance).
Furthermore, you know things like Bitrate before you download. On Netflix, you don't know how a movie has been compressed. Even 1080p movies can have noticeable quality differences depending on the method of compression. Using a private tracker, you can see the exact program and settings used before downloading.
Don't buy into the RIAA/MPAA lies. Piracy is not just about getting stuff for free.
It's almost the same thing as radio, the difference being that you have a copy.
Too bad it won't happen anytime soon.
Perhaps because the saying "the first rule of Usenet is that you don't talk about Usenet" has helped prevent it from going viral.
I should launch a Piracy as a Service app. Each month, you send me $100, and I will send you back copies of hot movies of varying quality, but all perfectly legal. You stay out of jail, I stay out of jail, and the pirates can rest assured that they never had to actually pay for the media they're consuming.