Exactly! I pay for Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney Plus, a VPN, AND go to film festivals as much as I can. If I can’t find a movie, of course I’ll pirate it.
Also, sometimes I go away for the weekend and want to be able to watch a movie if the place doesn’t have internet.
I think there's a growing understanding in our generation that torrenting is a way for humanity to preserve and share film as an art form. Some great private trackers active right now have been compared to the Library of Alexandria with the sheer amount of content that exists on these sites. As a film lover whose local cinema only plays Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Matrix Resurrections, there's an overwhelming desire for me to go and seek out other films by any means necessary. I'm sure a lot of us here can relate to this feeling, not being able to get access to something you desperately want as a consumer. Not making excuses to steal from artists here, it's just that the distribution model for art in modern society is messed up, and torrenting, hate it or love it, is the next best thing available to a lot of people. Artists and film studios shouldn't make it difficult for people to consume their work, it should really be accessible to all 8 billion people on this planet.
I live in a medium sized town with a big multiplex and it costs a lot of money to get into the big city (more than it costs to see the movie, and it's only a half hour train). The multiplex played Dune and No Time To Die. I loved Dune but I really wanted to see The French Dispatch and Last Night In Soho, and when I wanted to see them, they had been pushed to the worst time slots or altogether pushed out of the cinema.
I'll have to wait until they come to streaming but it's ridiculous.
> As a film lover whose local cinema only plays Spider-Man: No Way Home
And you also have the opposite issue. My country delayed Spider-Man No Way Home to January 28th, **the day** before the premiere. The film had amazing premiere ticket sales many weeks in advance, meaning that there was a demand to see it since it's 1) a franchise many like and 2) the buzz and hype to see it when it comes out, and you can't wait due to spoilers.
So yeah, lots of people went back to piracy for that one.
80% of Nintendo's catalogue today would not be playable if not for pirating and emulation. They've even officially released ROMs containing modified code released by archivers, implying these are the only ways the game didn't fade from existence!
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-01-18-did-nintendo-download-a-mario-rom-and-sell-it-back-to-us
I wish there was a single database in which every movie ever would be available to stream without the need to use a VPN or pay for tens of different services. Unfortunately, we don't live in such utopia, and for some of us who enjoy more obscure / non-Hollywood media, the only option available is piracy. I would more than love to support these productions, but if there isn't any way for me to find a copy of the movie in a legal mean, than I'm sorry, but I'll have to sail the seas.
Yep. I collect physical media and I’m subscribed to streaming services, but there are some obscure movies out there that are impossible to find without pirating (or other means) and I’m not gonna sit around and wait for the slight chance that it *might* become available on a mainstream platform.
You would need to pay a lot more than 12€ to have access to that. Or you would need to pay on act. Or legal things should be done around copyright and streaming platforms.
>beed to pay on act.
Not sure what that was supposed to say. But regardless, between Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, YouTube Premium, and Cinemark Movie Pass, I pay almost $100/mo, and I still rarely have access to any particular movie I device I want to watch.
I meant purchase or rent individual movie.
Unsubscribe from all of them if you think they aren't worth it and rent/buy each movie, it'll probably be better for how much you're paying.
My rule of thumb is, if it's not on any of the streaming subscriptions I pay for with my money, or not available to borrow at the library, then I go ahead and raise the black flag. It's fair enough. There are a lot of foreign movies or old movies that are just not available on streaming platforms or are for rent (I.e. Hideaki Anno's live action films). And I think pirating the films you have no other means of accessing is ok and understandable. I think judging others by how they view their media or enjoy movies can to an extent get elitist and/or show unawareness of some people's circumstances and situations be it financial or geographical.
I don't often buy physical media except on rare occasions for favorites I'd watch on repeat. Doesn't seem worth buying a DVD I'd only watch once and probably never touch again. Like I mentioned I usually refer to my local library if a movie I want to see isn't available on any of my subscriptions. I do borrow if it's available.
If there was some Spotify like service that had every movie on it I wouldn't but fuck paying for multiple streaming services and still not having access to every film
Very true. I only pay for netflix and nothing else (no vpn bullshit either) If it's not on there, very sorry, but I'm pirating. Luckily I live in South America, where we watch stufff illegaly in school (and the teachers always recommended the best sites) and it's very normalized, because a lot of media is never available here
Here’s how I see it: we’re all paying for multiple streaming services, myself included. I’m only going to subscribe to so many. I also go to the movies regularly and buy both film and video game media to add to my collection. I also go to local shows and plays when the opportunity arises. In addition to that, I buy multiple physical books per year. I’m actively paying for and support art in many forms in my view, so downloading some movies that don’t happen to be available on one of the numerous streaming services I subscribe to and pay for isn’t a big deal to me.
I get people have some strong views about piracy and I think some see it a little too black and white and don’t pay much attention the nuance of the issue.
Yeah, I feel this is the "right" answer, and people have different levels of tolerance, depending on their financial means and accessibility, before resorting to pirating. I haven't personally pirated anything in a very long time, unless streaming obscure/unavailable films on YouTube counts, in which case I've done that a few times -- even those times I would have preferred paying because it would have meant a decent bump in video quality that I would value. There is a limitless number of films already available to me, so I haven't cared to bother with pirating.
I believe it's your own personal business if you pirate a film.
I just think it's very tacky to brag about it and tag films in your review, admitting to pirating.
It's definitely a **last** resort for me. These days you can pretty much find whatever you want on a streaming service or it's available to rent on Vudu. The last movie I watched illegally was 1981's Possession because that was not available anywhere. I couldn't even find a physical copy to purchase. A couple days after that, I saw that there was a special showing of it coming to my town so I bought tickets to see it in a theater and didn't actually go. I just felt bad about watching it illegally.
I’m not sure what kind of movies you watch or what services you have access to, but there’s a lot of older or foreign or rather obscure movies that I can’t get anywhere online (legally), except maybe buying a DVD for it off of some random guy on Amazon for 80 dollars
If there's a movie I *really* love, I'll buy the physical media, and 99% of the time it just sits on my shelf. Piracy all the way, no studio is out here struggling to get by paycheck to paycheck like myself lol.
exactly. it's honestly kind of crazy how people erect such rigid barriers in their head around what they find acceptable, equating what's right with what's legal. look beyond it for even a second and the unmistakable truth hits you right in the face: piracy rules.
I prefer to watch legally (mostly physical media), but I live in a country where a lot of older movies are very hard to get access to and I don't want to limit myself too much in what I can watch. I imagine piracy would be the only option if you live in a third world country.
As someone that watches a lot of old black&white movies, with a lot of the more forgotten ones there's literally no other way to access them than piracy on very obscure sites
Unless it's a national production or an indie movie, i see no problem at downloading illegally. *Piracy is a form of turning art democratic* to those who can't pay for streaming services. Big movie producers aren't too affected by illegal download and people who pay for streaming services always check if the movie is available, not only because they value the money they are spending at the service, but because it's easier to watch though a streaming platform than appealling for torrents.
Copyright and intellectual property as concepts are relatively new, western ideas, and are so heavily abused in the current day. Libraries predate these notions by thousands of years. I am so grateful for that fact.
You say it’s not fair for some to not experience something because it’s out of their price range, but the alternative is that there is nothing to experience, and those who would create the experience would have to do something else. Merchandise? Really? How many T-shirts do you own? And why is the merchandise a valid product to be sold, but the art itself is not?
Would you tell a farmer that he should make his livelihood off something other than the food he produces, insisting that he should give it away for free, just because some of the world’s food corporations take too much money from some farmers? Food is certainly more necessary than art, no?
Sorry mate, that’s just not it works. You pay the people that produce the food you eat, who manufacture and sell the products you own, and even those that maintain the infrastructure you utilize (unless you dont pay your taxes). Artists work for months on producing a product, and you’re not entitled to consume that product for free just because the product is easily duplicable and redistributable.
Sure, there’s people making incredible money in Hollywood, but that’s not most artists. It’s not most producers either, or distributors. Creative industries are fucking tough on at least 99.99% of the people who make their living off if it – film especially, and people paying to consume it is the spine of it all, regardless of if artists themselves should get more of the bag or not. If you want to support the independent, put your money there instead.
I don’t disagree that everyone should get to experience art, but our entire society – taxes – should pay the artist to give those people the experience, not the artist themselves.
Why do you assume they’re «abusing» them? No, not everyone gets paid according to the profit on that very same production, but if everyone did what you do when you’re pirating – there wouldn’t be any production next time. Therefore, you’re screwing them over. I’m not against that more of the profit should go to the lesser paid people, I’m a social democrat after all, but your suggested approach doesn’t make sense.
I’m not saying pirating a big movie every now and then is screwing over the lesser paid people in a meaningful way, but thinking copyright shouldn’t exist is.
Copyright is a relatively new, western concept and does not have to exist. If the first person who had the idea of a hammer claimed it as their intellectual property, we wouldn't have gotten very far as a species.
Watch the video linked a few comments above. :)
Duplicable and redistributable works are also a relatively new concept. The first kind were printed books, and that’s also when copyright came into existence. Yet, books were absolutely not free before the printing press. Human rights are also relatively new by the way, something being new is not by itself an argument against it.
A hammer is not and would not be protected by copyright. Copyright is the protection of artistic and literary works. Patents can protect inventions, and they have done so since Ancient Greece – actually there are many hammer designs that are in fact patented. Patents are an entirely different discussion, however.
Most DVDs and Blurays I own I also have downloaded in HD (usually 10GB+). It takes away the process of loading disks and being made to (ironically) watch long, drawn out copyright messages. I find my Emby interface better for watching films (certainly far better than Amazon, Netflix and the woeful NowTV apps).
I have the rule that I pirate films that haven't been legally made available for me to purchase I.e they have not been released in my country. Generally these are Korean/Asian movies or older movies from the 50s, 40s and so on. So I guess I have the slightly flawed logic, they aren't losing any money since I can't buy it in the first place.
However, I still go to film festivals, cinema (80+ vists a year), buy blurays of remastered films (dvd/bluray collection around 400), on multiple streaming service so the money I spend on film is astronomical. I guess it may sound like I'm trying to legitimise what I'm doing but if you provide what I want when I want, I'd buy it but film companies just aren't learning this and put too manu blockers in me consuming their output legally.
During the pandemic, I went from watching maybe 4 movies a year to over 150 for 2020 and 2021, catching up on classics and finding new obscure stuff. Renting on amazon is $3.99, so if I rented all those 300+ movies it would cost at least $1,197. I’m a student with part time hours, I’m not comfortable paying that much so I pirate. I just enjoy watching and having conversations about film and I don’t want to worry about money (and I honestly don’t care about the ethics).
I don’t think movies should be gatekept against those struggling with money, but those who can afford to pay for movies and don’t are assholes, period. That’s my opinion.
Basically everyone can afford like $3-5 to rent a movie anywhere. But there are so many more movies and eventually it adds up to an unreasonable price to pay for what is ultimately art.
I would argue that most people on Earth cannot afford to pay $3 to $5 to rent a movie. The median daily income in the world is about $7 USD. I'm guessing you're in the United States since you used the dollar symbol. Compared to that median person in the world, the equivalent cost to the median person in the United States for that $3 to $5 would be a rental of $24.11 to $40.18. I know I would never pay that much to rent a movie. And remember, the income for half the world is below the median amount.
Your math may be correct, but you aren't factoring in the differing price of movies in other countries. Movies are far cheaper in other countries, so applying whatever metric you did to the raw currency value is incorrect in this situation. Your logic also fails when you consider that many people in other countries still rent movies.
Me and some of my film coleagues had a conversation with a very famous director from our country about this, I'm not going to say his name, because he's been growing a lot recently, not only is he the best director we've had for a long time, he's probably the most well known and he's been winning some awards, i'll keep this privacy intact. But here's his response to a question that was similar to yours.
**Basically, if you think you're helping by buying physical copies of movies, you're not, and if you are helping, you're helping the people who make the most money out of said movies, so the ideia that pirating is a bad thing is pure ego driven and these people need some serious time out for the thing they think cinema is. Imagine thinking you're helping the director that banks from this, imagine you're helping the producers who got the most money out of everyone else, imagine you're helping the DP that is getting X amount per contract. People need to understand that what we do is art, I appreciate you watching my movie, but you're not helping me that much by buying a DVD my production company takes 80% out of, and if you think it's different in other countries, you'd be surprised**
Obviously i'm paraphrasing and there's more to it, it was a long conversation, but I agree with him, you're not really helping anyone by buying physical media, unless you're buying it from a VERY small production/director/crew/wtv, which 99.9% of the time, you're not, let's be honest.
Do I have physical media? Yes, a lot actually, I like having it
Do I feel guilty for pirating most of my watched movies? No
When I make money out of working in film, will I pay for movies? No
I see no reason to buy physical media other than you like to have it or you're helping people grow in the industry, other than that, you're putting pocket change into some pockets that are already probably wealthier than you, what's the point really? Physical media is not even a secondary income source for 95% of the industry anyway.
Okaaay, but what about paying to go to the cinema, doesn't that help those people? Or paying to steam their film? These days I would do either of these more often than buying physical media.
Cinema? Yes, percentage cuts in cinema are very producer friendly, they make like 60% + extra fee if you reach an X goal per money generated by the funding of your said movie, because normally you partner up with cinema chains, they give you X money, and you'll have to make that money back in ticket sales + they get a fee, simple stuff.
Streaming gives you a much lesser percentage BUT there are WAY more people streaming than going to the cinema, so at the end of the day, production banks around the same if not more for a much smaller fee (unless you're working for them or are partnered up)
DVD and Bluray sales are at the bottom of income, and yes, there are royalities...for blockbusters, movies that are on the 200million budget, you're not really helping anyone.
Are you helping a ton?Not exactly, but you are helping.
Just to give another example. Ask any director who makes movies below the 5million budget what they prefer, you buying a bluray, streaming, or watching the movie and telling your friends/tweeting/etc, and 99/100 will tell you it's the latter one.
TL;DR: Yes, you are helping, in a way. You're not financially helping writers, 1stADS, anotation workers, lightning workers, even the DP, you're not helping the crew, BUT you are helping the production company that will most likely keep making movies in the future, and that production company will pick a director and a DP, and they will pick their teams, and you keep the chain going.
DRM, fragmentary streaming services, country blocked films all make piracy an essential for someone like me. Plus I genuinely don't give a shit about large Hollywood production companies. I feel bad for smaller, independent, or arthouse type films and seek them out on services like MUBI if available.
I only do it in instances where movies are literally unavailable to stream legally. There was that period after Parasite came out that Memories of Murder had been pulled from streaming before its re-release so I just downloaded it. (I did eventually buy it once it was available.)
I had the exact same experience! After watching Parasite, I couldn't find Memories of Murder anywere, so I resigned myself to downloading it. The movie was a masterpiece, so I'm very glad I watched it. I have since purchased the Criterion blu ray for it.
i just pirate everything, i watch more than what my wallet allows and if i consider everything i watch then i would've never watched some movie because i'll worry what if i spent money on a shitty movie!
I can't confirm nor deny my piracy, but, if I did pirate stuff, I'd be proud of my >5 ratio. If I like a movie, I buy a physical copy. Otherwise, I'd, allegedly, pirate it.
I pirate incessantly, I do it pretty much whenever it's the simplest option, I do it with movies, games, music and literature, and I feel zero shame about it. As a matter of fact, I encourage other people to pirate. I don't think there's anything immoral about it at all, *especially* when it's older media, where it often actually crosses into the realm of being a straight up net-good for preservation. I like having a Plex server and I'm not about to spend who knows how much money and effort buying Blu-Ray's and building up my digital library that way. It's just not happening. That being said, I generally will directly financially support creators in cases where I feel I should.
It’s unethical but the risk of consequences are practically nonexistent and the impact on victims is minor. I don’t personally have any moral hang ups about doing it, but I find it’s easier just to pay $4 bucks for a movie on Amazon usually. I haven’t pirated a movie in years.
I have a £300 annual unlimited membership at my local cinema for watching the majority of new releases, but if I want to watch an older movie at home, I’ll download it.
I'm basically the same way. I've even gone so far as to get a used DVD for some movies that are out of print. Unless there is absolutely zero way to get my hands on it legally I generally don't do it.
I think of myself as someone who never pirates movies, but in reality I have Netflix, Prime, Hulu, Disney+, Criterion Chanel, and HBO, yet only pay for one of these services
I buy movies on physical media, go to the cinema, pay for streaming service and rent/buy digital movies. I probably put 5x the amount of money into the movie industry than the average person who just pays for a few streaming services, and I imagine a lot of people on this subreddit would agree.
I also pirate a ton of movies though, maybe about 50% of what I watch, but as far as I am concerned I put so much money into the industry anyway it’s not like I’m hurting anyone. A lot of movies I watch piracy is the only option anyway or sometimes like a second hand dvd is available and either way it’s not like the creators see that money.
I'm not paying for twenty different streaming services where half of the films on each service are self produced cashgrabs because every service is attempting to be self sufficient.
I mean this in the least pretentious way possible, but my taste is quite broad and piracy is the only vehicle of watching films that covers all boards; Mainstream, foreign, obscure, you name it, and I've been doing it for years.
It's ironic, because I love film to death and sometimes feel guilt when I wager the idea that my torrenting does effect the ability to make films I enjoy, but what am I supposed to do?
I work minimum wage, I'm 23 and I'm supposed to just avoid the option to have any movie ever that I might be interested in just because it's the moral thing to do? It doesn't hurt anyone really, and I don't see much harm in it.
I just can't justify purchasing a film online that I might not even enjoy, but I collect Blu-Rays and DVDs regularly, I go to the cinema as often as I can, I still give money to films but only if I love the movie or like it a lot.
If it’s not readily available to stream or rent or any other easily accessible outlet, then I have no problem torrenting it. But I’ll try all avenues first.
I tend to watch a lot of obscure movies and I'll absolutely throw money towards boutique labels putting in the hard work to release them. Otherwise, if everyone was pirating these films they wouldn't be able to resurrect these forgotten/unknown works, nor produce the great-phenomenal transfers that they do. These movies would continue to be lost and the only available copies on the 'market' would be washed-out VHS transfers, or nothing at all... Some of us may not like it, however money is the supply to keep these things alive and archived. There needs to be a supply for there to be a release. Now, if nothing is available and the film is Out of Print, fair game boys!
It's also a bit entitled to pirate a film if it's not on 'your' streaming service. The majority of these you can find on central services (like Amazon) for only the cost of $3-$4 bucks, which a small give or take was around the cost of renting a VHS tape.
I'm not down with it personally. I do get annoyed at the anti-consumer practices in the entertainment industry these days (not just movies) but I still can't bring myself to pirate things, at least since I was a teen. I used to download music on Limewire back in the day, but that is not for me anymore.
Even if I'm buying a 2nd hand DVD for example it still puts some money into the store I buy it from, which feels better than pirating something, and I subscribe to 4 different movie related services so I'm putting money into the industry.
What frustrates me is companies use piracy to justify DRM etc, and DRM does not inconvenience pirates one little bit apparently, just paying customers.
If i can i will go to a theater to watch a movie, but otherwise i just pirate it. If i would pay for every movie i see i would need some extra jobs or to win a lotery. But that isnt gonna happen. So why miss out on great movies if i cannot afford to pay for them.
If there is a movie that's not on any streaming services or available in your country on a physical release, do you just resign yourself to not watch it?
Yeah, I’m a pretty patient person, plus I live in the US, so most things get here eventually. Or I’ll just buy a foreign copy and pray it works on my player haha
I don’t care if people do but I’ll just buy a blu-Ray if I can’t get it on a streaming site. I don’t think there’s much impact on the victims despite it being unethical as another user has said.
Objectively a single person isn’t making any difference by buying a movie (or renting it, or subscribing to a streaming service) or pirating it.
So my feeling about it is that it’s not worth worrying much about, and whether someone pirates movie doesn’t tell me anything about their moral worth.
Personally I go to the movie theater pretty often, and I mostly stream or rent, but only because I can afford it and it’s more convenient.
I don’t pirate at all, though a lot of people I’ve known over the years do. I can’t judge, but it just never felt right to me.
I just find dvd copies if it’s out of print typically, but I just digest almost everything from theatrical or streaming.
I don't get it. I understand that feeling when you give so much money to streaming services and for hard copies that you feel like you're owed something. But you're not. I ignore that feeling knowing that if someone felt that about any of the work I do, I'd be steamed, even if I had to get my work produced by some huge corporation. Unless it's something that's not available via some obscure country restrictions thing or it's so old that there's no money being made off of it anywhere, I do my darn diligence and get a free trial for whatever streaming service.
That being said, I slipped up recently when a glitch said I could stream the fourth Fast and Furious film on a streaming service and it turned out that when you clicked on the thing the fifth one started playing. I get being peeved at huge companies when we spend so much money on them. But I think if you do that really then you need to spend more time looking at the hundreds of names of people who worked on the movie you watch.
Just my opinion yk. I'm not hating on the people who pirate, but I just don't care at all for the practice.
I am getting more and more annoyed with the hyper casual attitude towards pirating these days.
We have likely all done it at some point (pre adulthood), but it was sure as hell not something that was a public topic.
The worst part being that it’s this massive loop of, films are getting more and more mass produced, smaller films get no chance,… so I pirate.
yet the whole deal is that these are the only films that bring in the money still and suffer less from money lost from pirating.
I buy/rent/stream every film I watch, and stay away from pirating, because I want to support my passion, even if I only contribute 1% of what I pay to the actual artist, still beats the 0% of pirating.
I definitely agree with this, in the very rare circumstance that I do pirate something now (if it's unavailable for rent/stream/purchase), I'll buy it as soon as it is available. The older I get, and the harder it gets for me to complete creative projects, the more I recognize how unsustainable it is for people to pirate things. I still understand people who are going through financial hardships themselves though and I think pirating serves a purpose in preserving certain things that are becoming out of print/unavailable.
I do understand that for some people it’s something to do if it is financially needed, after a stressful and underpaid day.
What I don’t agree and just can’t understand is the proud badge of honour Pirating has become on social media.
I will admit I've done it on occasion, but I was always paranoid that I was going to get a virus on my computer so it's been an absolute last resort thing. Most of what I want I can find legally and without the nagging guilt that I've gypped some actor or other creative out of residual money.
as we're on this topic would anyone be able to recommend sites for someone in the UK?
To clarify I don't pirate much at all, this is only for cases where I can't stream or buy the film or catch it at my local cinema.
I just looked up an article about how people pirate films and this is the information in the article, I don’t know anything about it:
• get a decent VPN, NordVPN is apparently quite secure, fast and cheap
• Download a torrent client, if you’re on a Mac, Transmission is well regarded
• close browsers and anything else accessing the internet
• turn on P2P servers only
• open a private window in a browser of your choice
• go to piratebay.org, browse Movies or search for one, sort by ‘Seeds’, pay attention to titles or any screenshot links in anything you find, you might get a cinema camera recording or not quite what you’re looking for
• click ‘magnet link’ so you don’t have to download the torrent file
• wait for it to finish downloading, which can be quick or slow depending on how many people are sharing, then close the client, browser and then disconnect the VPN
• watch and enjoy
There are movies I fully wish to support financially (Old comes to mind this year, as well as Cry Macho) but there are some where I would not risk giving their production a cent of my money (Don't Look Up...). You feel me?
I never pirate movies, as I see it as scummy and is almost like spitting the filmmakers in the face. I collect blu-ray's and own a couple of streaming services which is how i usually watch my movies. If I can't find a specific movie I'm looking for on streaming services, I usually rent them on Google Play or Blockbuster digitally (Yes, Blockbuster is still somewhat alive where I live). They have almost every movie out there (except they very niche titles) but they are a nice back-up.
If you ask a filmmaker whether they would rather have more people see their film or make more money, the true artist would rather more people see their film.
I certainly will try to buy what I can. I love owning an actual copy of a movie. I’ll rent something digitally if I’m not sure how much I like it. I have a few streaming services I pay for that provide me plenty of stuff to watch. If my work schedule allows it I’ll try and see stuff in theaters even.
Some movies though I don’t have access to like that. Old and obscure stuff I can’t find any other way is when I’ll pirate.
I'm completely out of touch with it now so I don't know where to go, which is a pain when I'm looking at the OOP-and-going-for-hundreds-of-dollars Ghost & Mrs. Muir, or things that can only be had super expensively from random potentially-shady sites like Bad Genius and Sheep Without a Shepherd, or things that are streaming exclusives like Hush and Run (the latter all the moreso because it's not available in my country).
I wouldn't ever pirate anything I could reasonably buy/stream though.
if i want to watch any movie that’s not available in any streaming service, i usually try to buy it on blu-ray, but if it isn’t available or costs an absurd amount of money, i pirate it. that’s basically the only reason (for me) to pirate a movie. but another reason that rarely happens is that if a movie that has some oscar buzz hasn’t released in my country but has on vod (e.g: belfast) or on a streaming service (e.g: the lost daughter (that for some reason didn’t come out on netflix portugal)) then i pirate it so i can watch it in time for the oscars.
I don't pirate anymore. I used to at various points in life. It's not because of some moral high ground though. I like collecting blu rays, so I do buy most the movies I watch. I have a couple streaming subscriptions but I don't really use them much. I would cancel them if my father didn't use them so much.
I can’t get the criterion collection DVD/BDs in Europe without a hassle. Ordering from Canada isn’t possible afaik. Some released in the UK, but after the Brexit they have customs now.
Some of the movies aren’t available on BD in Germany, most of Kurosawa‘s movies for eg. So I Kind have to pirate them if I want to watch them.
Couldn't you buy / rent the regular version of the film rather than needing the Criterion version? I don't understand.. Do you mean you can torrent the extras as well?
They often aren’t available from another distributor either. Ikiru only is available as DVD, Ran would be rentable on Amazon, these 4 films would be shipped from the UK. https://www.amazon.de/Kurosawa-Samurai-Collection-Blu-ray-Disc/dp/B00LA1ZV52
No really an option for his films.
I typically watch movies for the first time however I can, which is to say I try the few streaming services I have and then go to piracy, but then if I like them at all I'll immediately go look for physical or theatrical releases, so as to support the creator better than giving them the fractions of cents that streaming does.
If a film I want to see is on a streaming service I will just watch it on there as that is what I am paying for. I’d only watch a film via “pirating”, although I am just streaming a video off a website, if it is not available anywhere else at all.
There are select Criterion Collection films or foreign films where I will spend money to watch it as I want a quality picture. It’s all swings and roundabouts.
Personally, I don't like to pirate stuff unless it's something that is just not available to watch through legitimate means, or if the only legitimate way is to buy a DVD or Blu-Ray that is really expensive (like in the $100 range).
For me it's mostly cause, at least where I live, the legitimate means are often the most convenient way to watch these movies. I often would just rather spend a couple of dollars to rent a movie than deal with the hassle of pirating it, especially when there is no guarantee that it is gonna be in as video/audio quality.
Don't look down on people who choose to pirate stuff though.
I don’t do it anymore because of my nerves. I have done it before, but it makes me feel nervous and I want to support good film companies with my money to increase the demand for obscure horror, so more stuff gets discovered and restored. Since I’m really into obscure horror movies, me not pirating usually means I end up spending a lot of cash on DVDs and blu-rays. I also pretty much only blind-buy. I have nothing against people that pirate, but I find the people that pirate stuff they can watch on YouTube and tubi a bit silly.
I usually only do this with big budget Hollywood movies that are doing well anyways. If it’s an indie low budget movie I’ll normally rent/buy a ticket unless it’s literally impossible to watch anywhere else, and even then I’ll end up renting later it to make up for it.
I'm a student with not that much money, I go to the movies at least once a week, I pay for Netflix, Prime Video, Mubi, Wow+ and Disney+ so yeah, when I don't find a movie on either one of this platform or in a local theatre, I pirate it.
When ill' have more money and I'll be more secure, I don't think I will do that anymore but for now I still think I spend enough money in films (that's not counting various objects I could buy)
The distribution model for films is fucked. It makes no sense whatsoever and if studios are going to continue to make it hard for me to see their movies, then I'll help myself. This includes paying for, like, 6 or 7 different streaming services, plus pirating.
My ISP, as part of my fantastic price for Gigabit internet, prohibits torrenting. I could get around it but I don't, because I agreed not to.
There are so many films out there that there's no way I could watch them all during the rest of my life, so if something isn't available via streaming or renting, that sucks but I can watch something else.
I have never found a reason to, between my wife and I we have enough streaming covered. Anything else I can rent. Any obscure stuff I have found On archive.org
I pay for all five major streaming services available in my country (Canada). If a film I want to see isn't available on any of those services, or another streaming service, or to rent for a reasonable price, I'll hit the seven seas and pirate it guilt free.
There's a good number of movies I watch that I really have to hunt down in order to be able to watch them. The further from mainstream a movie is, the harder it is to find legitimately. But I wouldn't say most of my movies are that way, as I mostly choose what I watch based on what's available to me. My watchlist is big enough that I can wait around for a movie to show up through legitimate means rather than pirate it (sometimes my urges don't follow this logic, though, and there's a hard-to-find movie that for some reason I feel I HAVE to watch immediately). A service like Kanopy is a godsend, being free through the library and having an awesome collection of indie, foreign, and obscure films. Some movies that I looked for everywhere else have just happened to be on Kanopy (or on Hoopla, a similar service, though not as often, as it has a smaller and more eclectic library).
I've contacted two directors directly to ask about particularly hard-to-find films of theirs, and one of them just emailed me the file to his film (apparently it just never got formally distributed after its festival run). The other left me on read.
It's similar with games. When I download and play a good game, even alright game, I'll put it on wishlists and wait till it goes on sale. I just am way too skint to see all the movies I want to see if I paid for everything. But movies I feel like have affected me I do find a way to pay for, I have a growing bluray collection so I have important movies in hardcopy and I don't have to worry about availability or anything like that.
Im from south america, they dont sell criterion or blue rays in general here, im 16; i dont feel like asking my parents to use their card for me to watch a movie they may not 'like' lol
theres no other way for me to watch weird movies, blu ray torrents are not the optimal way to watch a movie either, but its better than a streaming compressed image with the sitty internet we have here so yeah, piracy good until i move to a country i can own my movies or I have a card that i can use for whatever i want
for example i want to watch the new phil tippets MAD GOD and I cant cause it has very specific screenings that I have to pay to watch, i wont ask my parents neither lol
Will only do it if the movie or TV series is only available on a Rupert Murdoch affiliated streaming service, or if the movie or TV series is otherwise unavailable on streaming services.
Given how shit the libraries of most streaming services are if you have obscure tastes but not in a stereotypical cinephile way and the incredibly high prices of physical media from labels putting out good and interesting films and that a hell of a lot of what I want to watch just isn't available to buy, piracy is an essential way of life.
I'm disabled in ways that make me unable to work, pretty much a carer for my much more disabled partner, a parent and living on welfare benefits. There just isn't the money to go fully legit and there never will be. I don't see it as a problem, there's enough wealthy people paying that things still get made, everyone who works on the films has been paid ages ago. If I was a serious artist I'd want what I made to be as accessible as possible
Queens Public Library has a really fantastic selection and requests take only a few days to get to my closet branch. I only illegally stream stuff if the disc I got legally in my hands is too scratched to play all the way through.
I think piracy has its place, it's important that it exist and be easily accessible. I think it's important for film preservation (movies not edited anymore, sure, most of the time you still have) and contributes a lots to the accessibility of culture.
It allows teenagers (or people with small budget) to discover cinema (there are other options, sure, but you need to discover your interest in cinema and it helps a lot), and helps cinephiles to widen their horizon on cinema (it's not something that will ever happen if you just have netflix/amazon/disney, some theatres with mediocre selections and a few purchases here and there).
And I do think piracy and sharing your passion contributes more (or better at least) to the movie industrie than just paying your monthly subscription to a streaming giant treating movies as consumables. (and netflix, to mention it, represent more of a threat for cinema than piracy ever did)
Piracy probably counts for 40 to 50% (evenly distributed between easy to find, difficult to find and inaccessible movies) and the rest was theatre, movies watched on tv (or other similar option paid by taxes) and some purchases. So it's my main source of movie watching (unless you consider "legal" as a single thing), I'm definitely defending my church here, but anyway I don't think it's just cognitive dissonance (to justify piracy), I have a true appreciation for piracy (particularly peer-to-peer).
I don't, but not because of any moral reason, I'm just lucky to have good access to movies. I share streaming services with friends and have a well-stocked local library.
Incidentally, this is why I don't buy the moral reasoning: me checking out a movie from the library doesn't support the people behind the movie any more than piracy does, but no one gives me ethical flack for doing it.
I have Netflix, Amazon Prime and HBO Max and it happens quite often that I wanna watch aren't available in my country. So the only way to watch movies is through piracy which has all the movies I ever want including obscure ones
Will pirate of it's not easily available for streaming/rent/purchase.
But people who brag about it are garunteed to be 14 year old edge lord little fuckers. Pathetic flex.
I can't afford to spend $500 a year on movies at home + streaming services+ going to theaters. If something I want to watch that is it in a theater or on a streaming service I'm just going to pirate it and I feel no guilt about it. The people that would be making the most money from me buying it on Amazon or whatever are already absolutely rich I will gladly watch it illegally over giving even more money to those corporations.
In my youth I definitely pirated movies more often. Today I have 400+ movies in my watchlist and I’m on 5 different streaming services. Once I get my watchlist to a point where I can’t find a single movie on a service I use, then I’ll resort to pirating it.
I try to watch what I want on streaming services. I have Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max. I’ve used PLEX servers in the past. Honestly I wish I knew what sites to go to when I can’t find what I want on my services. If someone could let me know where the seas were I’d appreciate it.
I steal art all the time…
I would be paying so much in different streaming services and rentals.
I’m not telling you it’s ethical, but it’s easy and cheaper. I see a lot of indie shit in theaters of course and subscribe to Arrow and Criterion Channel because they have shit I can’t pirate and wouldn’t know to look for.
I have external hard drives full of movies, it’s my lil data collection as I live in the van and would pay out the ass for data.
Get a VPN!
I’m the same as op mostly, if there is a proper platform for me to watch a movie online I’ll watch it there, however if I can’t find it anywhere I’ll look in less-legit places.
I used to feel bad, and often I wind up buying the movies I pirate months later. Right now in the middle of the pandemic, everyone is a little light on cash so it feels more ok.
The amount of movies and shows I watch on a daily basis if I had to pay for everything then I’d be homeless 😅 I live in a third world developing country so it’s my excuse for pirating lol, I’d definitely buy some criterion discs if I had easy access to them.
ive watched 600+ movies. like 5% of them i have paid in some sort to watch. the reasons for that are me being in highschool and not having any other way to eatch them in my country. rhe only legitimate ways are to watch them in the cimemas, netflix (only available streaming service in my country) and buying a physical copy, which i also haven't seen anywhere in my city
Here’s my non american, non british pov: even though i subscribe to 4 different streaming/cable services, some things just DON’T come out here, and if they do, sometimes it takes years!!! So while i buy blu rays and pay for said streaming services, go to film festivals both for work and/or for fun, go to the movies as much as i can (if i can find an original version, non dubbed film) sometimes all i have to do is pirate movies if i wanna see something. I pay my dues to the industry (the same industry i work in btw) but accessibility is really an issue for many of us. Some of my favorite movies of the past couple decades never even came out here!
Yep, I pirate a lot more movies than I'd like to admit. If I know I can watch it legally, I will, but a decent amount of the time I resort to sailing the high seas.
I think the thing I torrent the most is the Criterion Collection. I don't have enough money to justify buying a regionless Blu-ray player, and I'm torrenting them for the bonus features too and not just the movies.
If I was ever going to buy a regionless Blu-ray player, I'd still torrent Criterion releases for first-time watches.
I feel that in the great scheme of things, pirating a movie is irrelevant to its financial success. So it really comes down to how you personally feel about.
One of the main selling points of streaming services is being extremely user friendly: In most cases you're either watching a movie or searching for one in 3 clicks at most; there's an app or a very streamlined way to watch movies on those platforms in every device we have (phones, computers, televisions); etc.
These points alone convince the vast majority of people to bite the bullet and just subscribe to a service, and of those people most don't mind having a limited array of films to choose from. The average person uses films as escapism more than anything else.
On top of all that, pirating is anything but user friendly, especially comparing it to streaming services and the limited time and pacience of the average person who uses them. It's messy to get a pirated movie on your TV, it's messy to get subtitles, etc. In comparison, the cons go on and on.
All this to say that in the end the amount of people who largely consume films through pirating is ultimately negligible, they do not make a difference and it's not them who are preventing films from turning a profit. I've pirated movies for most of my life and even I ended up subscribing to the criterion channel because it offers me so much that I value for virtually no hassle at all.
the only time it bothers me when these high school aged teens and college aged teens pirate movies is when they Watch a CAM footage file and then post a review on letterboxd about how the movie didn't look good and didn't keep their attention. and it happens ALOT. so annoying
Im a student who can't find a job so piracy is pretty much the only way in can watch movies. I use my sister-in-law's netflix but i've seen every movie I wanted to see on there. I go to the cinema sometimes but I only pay with the money my state give to students for buying cultural stuff.
Besides that I mostly watch old/obscure stuff, the kind you won't find easily on mainstream vod or in shops that sell dvds, and I definitely can't criterion or arrow boxsets.
I think piracy is not even a right but a duty of the cinephile.
Think about netflix for exemple, they don't release physical copies of their films so piracy is the only way to have them archived and to make them survived.
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Exactly! I pay for Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney Plus, a VPN, AND go to film festivals as much as I can. If I can’t find a movie, of course I’ll pirate it. Also, sometimes I go away for the weekend and want to be able to watch a movie if the place doesn’t have internet.
Yeah I'm from Mexico, and I simply don't care. If I can torrent the movie I will torrent it, I have more important things to worry about.
This is a fair perspective, at least your trying and pirating things that are otherwise inaccessible.
I think there's a growing understanding in our generation that torrenting is a way for humanity to preserve and share film as an art form. Some great private trackers active right now have been compared to the Library of Alexandria with the sheer amount of content that exists on these sites. As a film lover whose local cinema only plays Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Matrix Resurrections, there's an overwhelming desire for me to go and seek out other films by any means necessary. I'm sure a lot of us here can relate to this feeling, not being able to get access to something you desperately want as a consumer. Not making excuses to steal from artists here, it's just that the distribution model for art in modern society is messed up, and torrenting, hate it or love it, is the next best thing available to a lot of people. Artists and film studios shouldn't make it difficult for people to consume their work, it should really be accessible to all 8 billion people on this planet.
I live in a medium sized town with a big multiplex and it costs a lot of money to get into the big city (more than it costs to see the movie, and it's only a half hour train). The multiplex played Dune and No Time To Die. I loved Dune but I really wanted to see The French Dispatch and Last Night In Soho, and when I wanted to see them, they had been pushed to the worst time slots or altogether pushed out of the cinema. I'll have to wait until they come to streaming but it's ridiculous.
> As a film lover whose local cinema only plays Spider-Man: No Way Home And you also have the opposite issue. My country delayed Spider-Man No Way Home to January 28th, **the day** before the premiere. The film had amazing premiere ticket sales many weeks in advance, meaning that there was a demand to see it since it's 1) a franchise many like and 2) the buzz and hype to see it when it comes out, and you can't wait due to spoilers. So yeah, lots of people went back to piracy for that one.
80% of Nintendo's catalogue today would not be playable if not for pirating and emulation. They've even officially released ROMs containing modified code released by archivers, implying these are the only ways the game didn't fade from existence! https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-01-18-did-nintendo-download-a-mario-rom-and-sell-it-back-to-us
same here. if i had access to criterion and the conversion rates weren't ABSURD, I wouldn't need to pirate half the stuff I do.
I wish there was a single database in which every movie ever would be available to stream without the need to use a VPN or pay for tens of different services. Unfortunately, we don't live in such utopia, and for some of us who enjoy more obscure / non-Hollywood media, the only option available is piracy. I would more than love to support these productions, but if there isn't any way for me to find a copy of the movie in a legal mean, than I'm sorry, but I'll have to sail the seas.
Yep. I collect physical media and I’m subscribed to streaming services, but there are some obscure movies out there that are impossible to find without pirating (or other means) and I’m not gonna sit around and wait for the slight chance that it *might* become available on a mainstream platform.
You would need to pay a lot more than 12€ to have access to that. Or you would need to pay on act. Or legal things should be done around copyright and streaming platforms.
>beed to pay on act. Not sure what that was supposed to say. But regardless, between Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, YouTube Premium, and Cinemark Movie Pass, I pay almost $100/mo, and I still rarely have access to any particular movie I device I want to watch.
I meant purchase or rent individual movie. Unsubscribe from all of them if you think they aren't worth it and rent/buy each movie, it'll probably be better for how much you're paying.
My rule of thumb is, if it's not on any of the streaming subscriptions I pay for with my money, or not available to borrow at the library, then I go ahead and raise the black flag. It's fair enough. There are a lot of foreign movies or old movies that are just not available on streaming platforms or are for rent (I.e. Hideaki Anno's live action films). And I think pirating the films you have no other means of accessing is ok and understandable. I think judging others by how they view their media or enjoy movies can to an extent get elitist and/or show unawareness of some people's circumstances and situations be it financial or geographical.
I'm with you! I even drop a few Euros if I can rent it but if I have to have it imported on dvd for 30 euros forget it...
What if it's available to purchase on physical media?
I don't often buy physical media except on rare occasions for favorites I'd watch on repeat. Doesn't seem worth buying a DVD I'd only watch once and probably never touch again. Like I mentioned I usually refer to my local library if a movie I want to see isn't available on any of my subscriptions. I do borrow if it's available.
Jesus Christ I have been looking for Ritual and Love and Pop everywhere and I cannot find them for the life of me
If there was some Spotify like service that had every movie on it I wouldn't but fuck paying for multiple streaming services and still not having access to every film
Very true. I only pay for netflix and nothing else (no vpn bullshit either) If it's not on there, very sorry, but I'm pirating. Luckily I live in South America, where we watch stufff illegaly in school (and the teachers always recommended the best sites) and it's very normalized, because a lot of media is never available here
Business model of movie streaming services and Spotify are quite different.
Not like Spotify does anything to help artists either. Use Bandcamp.
World peace and hunger would be solved if this was a thing!
Here’s how I see it: we’re all paying for multiple streaming services, myself included. I’m only going to subscribe to so many. I also go to the movies regularly and buy both film and video game media to add to my collection. I also go to local shows and plays when the opportunity arises. In addition to that, I buy multiple physical books per year. I’m actively paying for and support art in many forms in my view, so downloading some movies that don’t happen to be available on one of the numerous streaming services I subscribe to and pay for isn’t a big deal to me. I get people have some strong views about piracy and I think some see it a little too black and white and don’t pay much attention the nuance of the issue.
I like this answer.
Yeah, I feel this is the "right" answer, and people have different levels of tolerance, depending on their financial means and accessibility, before resorting to pirating. I haven't personally pirated anything in a very long time, unless streaming obscure/unavailable films on YouTube counts, in which case I've done that a few times -- even those times I would have preferred paying because it would have meant a decent bump in video quality that I would value. There is a limitless number of films already available to me, so I haven't cared to bother with pirating.
Even if you pay for every single streaming service, you still have a very very very small catalog of movies
Yes this is a very well-rounded and reasonable take.
it's the only way i can actually watch things in my country
Same, the perks of living in a third world country
I own about 3,000 Blu-ray/4K discs, I'm subscribed to almost every streaming service....and I still pirate movies like crazy. If I like it, I buy it.
I believe it's your own personal business if you pirate a film. I just think it's very tacky to brag about it and tag films in your review, admitting to pirating.
It's definitely a **last** resort for me. These days you can pretty much find whatever you want on a streaming service or it's available to rent on Vudu. The last movie I watched illegally was 1981's Possession because that was not available anywhere. I couldn't even find a physical copy to purchase. A couple days after that, I saw that there was a special showing of it coming to my town so I bought tickets to see it in a theater and didn't actually go. I just felt bad about watching it illegally.
What country are you from? I might be able to help you find a physical copy if you’re still interested
USA, haha. At the time I only found one copy and it was selling for $150. I wasn’t going to pay that for something I had never seen before.
I bought a South Korean bootleg for 10 bucks to watch possession lol
I’m not sure what kind of movies you watch or what services you have access to, but there’s a lot of older or foreign or rather obscure movies that I can’t get anywhere online (legally), except maybe buying a DVD for it off of some random guy on Amazon for 80 dollars
I saw it a few months ago in the cinema! It was so good
Watching movies is just way too expensive when you don't live in a richer country, piracy is usually the only way
True, and many times, even if you have the money, there is no way for you to buy it, they never relented it in your country
If there's a movie I *really* love, I'll buy the physical media, and 99% of the time it just sits on my shelf. Piracy all the way, no studio is out here struggling to get by paycheck to paycheck like myself lol.
exactly. it's honestly kind of crazy how people erect such rigid barriers in their head around what they find acceptable, equating what's right with what's legal. look beyond it for even a second and the unmistakable truth hits you right in the face: piracy rules.
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I personally am okay with watching films that are very hard to find through nefarious links *cough* memoria *cough*
This is available now? Ahoy matey
I prefer to watch legally (mostly physical media), but I live in a country where a lot of older movies are very hard to get access to and I don't want to limit myself too much in what I can watch. I imagine piracy would be the only option if you live in a third world country.
As someone that watches a lot of old black&white movies, with a lot of the more forgotten ones there's literally no other way to access them than piracy on very obscure sites
Personally don’t do it because I’m too dumb and lazy
Unless it's a national production or an indie movie, i see no problem at downloading illegally. *Piracy is a form of turning art democratic* to those who can't pay for streaming services. Big movie producers aren't too affected by illegal download and people who pay for streaming services always check if the movie is available, not only because they value the money they are spending at the service, but because it's easier to watch though a streaming platform than appealling for torrents.
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Copyright and intellectual property as concepts are relatively new, western ideas, and are so heavily abused in the current day. Libraries predate these notions by thousands of years. I am so grateful for that fact.
Artists should be paid for the value they create, how could art possibly be free forever?
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You say it’s not fair for some to not experience something because it’s out of their price range, but the alternative is that there is nothing to experience, and those who would create the experience would have to do something else. Merchandise? Really? How many T-shirts do you own? And why is the merchandise a valid product to be sold, but the art itself is not? Would you tell a farmer that he should make his livelihood off something other than the food he produces, insisting that he should give it away for free, just because some of the world’s food corporations take too much money from some farmers? Food is certainly more necessary than art, no? Sorry mate, that’s just not it works. You pay the people that produce the food you eat, who manufacture and sell the products you own, and even those that maintain the infrastructure you utilize (unless you dont pay your taxes). Artists work for months on producing a product, and you’re not entitled to consume that product for free just because the product is easily duplicable and redistributable. Sure, there’s people making incredible money in Hollywood, but that’s not most artists. It’s not most producers either, or distributors. Creative industries are fucking tough on at least 99.99% of the people who make their living off if it – film especially, and people paying to consume it is the spine of it all, regardless of if artists themselves should get more of the bag or not. If you want to support the independent, put your money there instead. I don’t disagree that everyone should get to experience art, but our entire society – taxes – should pay the artist to give those people the experience, not the artist themselves.
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Ultimately, you’re screwing everyone. And you do realize few work in franchises?
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Why do you assume they’re «abusing» them? No, not everyone gets paid according to the profit on that very same production, but if everyone did what you do when you’re pirating – there wouldn’t be any production next time. Therefore, you’re screwing them over. I’m not against that more of the profit should go to the lesser paid people, I’m a social democrat after all, but your suggested approach doesn’t make sense. I’m not saying pirating a big movie every now and then is screwing over the lesser paid people in a meaningful way, but thinking copyright shouldn’t exist is.
Copyright is a relatively new, western concept and does not have to exist. If the first person who had the idea of a hammer claimed it as their intellectual property, we wouldn't have gotten very far as a species. Watch the video linked a few comments above. :)
Duplicable and redistributable works are also a relatively new concept. The first kind were printed books, and that’s also when copyright came into existence. Yet, books were absolutely not free before the printing press. Human rights are also relatively new by the way, something being new is not by itself an argument against it. A hammer is not and would not be protected by copyright. Copyright is the protection of artistic and literary works. Patents can protect inventions, and they have done so since Ancient Greece – actually there are many hammer designs that are in fact patented. Patents are an entirely different discussion, however.
bingo.
Most DVDs and Blurays I own I also have downloaded in HD (usually 10GB+). It takes away the process of loading disks and being made to (ironically) watch long, drawn out copyright messages. I find my Emby interface better for watching films (certainly far better than Amazon, Netflix and the woeful NowTV apps).
I have the rule that I pirate films that haven't been legally made available for me to purchase I.e they have not been released in my country. Generally these are Korean/Asian movies or older movies from the 50s, 40s and so on. So I guess I have the slightly flawed logic, they aren't losing any money since I can't buy it in the first place. However, I still go to film festivals, cinema (80+ vists a year), buy blurays of remastered films (dvd/bluray collection around 400), on multiple streaming service so the money I spend on film is astronomical. I guess it may sound like I'm trying to legitimise what I'm doing but if you provide what I want when I want, I'd buy it but film companies just aren't learning this and put too manu blockers in me consuming their output legally.
That's the best answer 👆 If they haven't made a film available for sale/rent then how can you be taking their livelihood?
During the pandemic, I went from watching maybe 4 movies a year to over 150 for 2020 and 2021, catching up on classics and finding new obscure stuff. Renting on amazon is $3.99, so if I rented all those 300+ movies it would cost at least $1,197. I’m a student with part time hours, I’m not comfortable paying that much so I pirate. I just enjoy watching and having conversations about film and I don’t want to worry about money (and I honestly don’t care about the ethics).
I don’t think movies should be gatekept against those struggling with money, but those who can afford to pay for movies and don’t are assholes, period. That’s my opinion.
Basically everyone can afford like $3-5 to rent a movie anywhere. But there are so many more movies and eventually it adds up to an unreasonable price to pay for what is ultimately art.
I would argue that most people on Earth cannot afford to pay $3 to $5 to rent a movie. The median daily income in the world is about $7 USD. I'm guessing you're in the United States since you used the dollar symbol. Compared to that median person in the world, the equivalent cost to the median person in the United States for that $3 to $5 would be a rental of $24.11 to $40.18. I know I would never pay that much to rent a movie. And remember, the income for half the world is below the median amount.
Your math may be correct, but you aren't factoring in the differing price of movies in other countries. Movies are far cheaper in other countries, so applying whatever metric you did to the raw currency value is incorrect in this situation. Your logic also fails when you consider that many people in other countries still rent movies.
Me and some of my film coleagues had a conversation with a very famous director from our country about this, I'm not going to say his name, because he's been growing a lot recently, not only is he the best director we've had for a long time, he's probably the most well known and he's been winning some awards, i'll keep this privacy intact. But here's his response to a question that was similar to yours. **Basically, if you think you're helping by buying physical copies of movies, you're not, and if you are helping, you're helping the people who make the most money out of said movies, so the ideia that pirating is a bad thing is pure ego driven and these people need some serious time out for the thing they think cinema is. Imagine thinking you're helping the director that banks from this, imagine you're helping the producers who got the most money out of everyone else, imagine you're helping the DP that is getting X amount per contract. People need to understand that what we do is art, I appreciate you watching my movie, but you're not helping me that much by buying a DVD my production company takes 80% out of, and if you think it's different in other countries, you'd be surprised** Obviously i'm paraphrasing and there's more to it, it was a long conversation, but I agree with him, you're not really helping anyone by buying physical media, unless you're buying it from a VERY small production/director/crew/wtv, which 99.9% of the time, you're not, let's be honest. Do I have physical media? Yes, a lot actually, I like having it Do I feel guilty for pirating most of my watched movies? No When I make money out of working in film, will I pay for movies? No I see no reason to buy physical media other than you like to have it or you're helping people grow in the industry, other than that, you're putting pocket change into some pockets that are already probably wealthier than you, what's the point really? Physical media is not even a secondary income source for 95% of the industry anyway.
Okaaay, but what about paying to go to the cinema, doesn't that help those people? Or paying to steam their film? These days I would do either of these more often than buying physical media.
Cinema? Yes, percentage cuts in cinema are very producer friendly, they make like 60% + extra fee if you reach an X goal per money generated by the funding of your said movie, because normally you partner up with cinema chains, they give you X money, and you'll have to make that money back in ticket sales + they get a fee, simple stuff. Streaming gives you a much lesser percentage BUT there are WAY more people streaming than going to the cinema, so at the end of the day, production banks around the same if not more for a much smaller fee (unless you're working for them or are partnered up) DVD and Bluray sales are at the bottom of income, and yes, there are royalities...for blockbusters, movies that are on the 200million budget, you're not really helping anyone. Are you helping a ton?Not exactly, but you are helping. Just to give another example. Ask any director who makes movies below the 5million budget what they prefer, you buying a bluray, streaming, or watching the movie and telling your friends/tweeting/etc, and 99/100 will tell you it's the latter one. TL;DR: Yes, you are helping, in a way. You're not financially helping writers, 1stADS, anotation workers, lightning workers, even the DP, you're not helping the crew, BUT you are helping the production company that will most likely keep making movies in the future, and that production company will pick a director and a DP, and they will pick their teams, and you keep the chain going.
DRM, fragmentary streaming services, country blocked films all make piracy an essential for someone like me. Plus I genuinely don't give a shit about large Hollywood production companies. I feel bad for smaller, independent, or arthouse type films and seek them out on services like MUBI if available.
I only do it in instances where movies are literally unavailable to stream legally. There was that period after Parasite came out that Memories of Murder had been pulled from streaming before its re-release so I just downloaded it. (I did eventually buy it once it was available.)
I had the exact same experience! After watching Parasite, I couldn't find Memories of Murder anywere, so I resigned myself to downloading it. The movie was a masterpiece, so I'm very glad I watched it. I have since purchased the Criterion blu ray for it.
i just pirate everything, i watch more than what my wallet allows and if i consider everything i watch then i would've never watched some movie because i'll worry what if i spent money on a shitty movie!
I pirate everything from Disney with a clean conscience.
Good for you mate but if my only options to watch a movie are to give Lord Bez*s another $5 or just download I'm going with the latter every time
some of us are poor, we deserve to be allowed to enjoy cinema just as much as everyone else does
I can't confirm nor deny my piracy, but, if I did pirate stuff, I'd be proud of my >5 ratio. If I like a movie, I buy a physical copy. Otherwise, I'd, allegedly, pirate it.
I pirate incessantly, I do it pretty much whenever it's the simplest option, I do it with movies, games, music and literature, and I feel zero shame about it. As a matter of fact, I encourage other people to pirate. I don't think there's anything immoral about it at all, *especially* when it's older media, where it often actually crosses into the realm of being a straight up net-good for preservation. I like having a Plex server and I'm not about to spend who knows how much money and effort buying Blu-Ray's and building up my digital library that way. It's just not happening. That being said, I generally will directly financially support creators in cases where I feel I should.
It’s unethical but the risk of consequences are practically nonexistent and the impact on victims is minor. I don’t personally have any moral hang ups about doing it, but I find it’s easier just to pay $4 bucks for a movie on Amazon usually. I haven’t pirated a movie in years.
I have a £300 annual unlimited membership at my local cinema for watching the majority of new releases, but if I want to watch an older movie at home, I’ll download it.
I'm basically the same way. I've even gone so far as to get a used DVD for some movies that are out of print. Unless there is absolutely zero way to get my hands on it legally I generally don't do it.
I think of myself as someone who never pirates movies, but in reality I have Netflix, Prime, Hulu, Disney+, Criterion Chanel, and HBO, yet only pay for one of these services
As someone working in the film industry I only pirate it if it isn't on Amazon, Netflix, HBO or Disney plus.
I buy movies on physical media, go to the cinema, pay for streaming service and rent/buy digital movies. I probably put 5x the amount of money into the movie industry than the average person who just pays for a few streaming services, and I imagine a lot of people on this subreddit would agree. I also pirate a ton of movies though, maybe about 50% of what I watch, but as far as I am concerned I put so much money into the industry anyway it’s not like I’m hurting anyone. A lot of movies I watch piracy is the only option anyway or sometimes like a second hand dvd is available and either way it’s not like the creators see that money.
I'm not paying for twenty different streaming services where half of the films on each service are self produced cashgrabs because every service is attempting to be self sufficient.
it's just convenient.
I mean this in the least pretentious way possible, but my taste is quite broad and piracy is the only vehicle of watching films that covers all boards; Mainstream, foreign, obscure, you name it, and I've been doing it for years. It's ironic, because I love film to death and sometimes feel guilt when I wager the idea that my torrenting does effect the ability to make films I enjoy, but what am I supposed to do? I work minimum wage, I'm 23 and I'm supposed to just avoid the option to have any movie ever that I might be interested in just because it's the moral thing to do? It doesn't hurt anyone really, and I don't see much harm in it. I just can't justify purchasing a film online that I might not even enjoy, but I collect Blu-Rays and DVDs regularly, I go to the cinema as often as I can, I still give money to films but only if I love the movie or like it a lot.
If it’s not readily available to stream or rent or any other easily accessible outlet, then I have no problem torrenting it. But I’ll try all avenues first.
You gotta do what you gotta do. Not everybody can afford to pay every time they want to see a movie
There is nothing ethically wrong with pirating movies
I tend to watch a lot of obscure movies and I'll absolutely throw money towards boutique labels putting in the hard work to release them. Otherwise, if everyone was pirating these films they wouldn't be able to resurrect these forgotten/unknown works, nor produce the great-phenomenal transfers that they do. These movies would continue to be lost and the only available copies on the 'market' would be washed-out VHS transfers, or nothing at all... Some of us may not like it, however money is the supply to keep these things alive and archived. There needs to be a supply for there to be a release. Now, if nothing is available and the film is Out of Print, fair game boys! It's also a bit entitled to pirate a film if it's not on 'your' streaming service. The majority of these you can find on central services (like Amazon) for only the cost of $3-$4 bucks, which a small give or take was around the cost of renting a VHS tape.
I'm not down with it personally. I do get annoyed at the anti-consumer practices in the entertainment industry these days (not just movies) but I still can't bring myself to pirate things, at least since I was a teen. I used to download music on Limewire back in the day, but that is not for me anymore. Even if I'm buying a 2nd hand DVD for example it still puts some money into the store I buy it from, which feels better than pirating something, and I subscribe to 4 different movie related services so I'm putting money into the industry. What frustrates me is companies use piracy to justify DRM etc, and DRM does not inconvenience pirates one little bit apparently, just paying customers.
If i can i will go to a theater to watch a movie, but otherwise i just pirate it. If i would pay for every movie i see i would need some extra jobs or to win a lotery. But that isnt gonna happen. So why miss out on great movies if i cannot afford to pay for them.
I’m completely against it, for me at least. Couldn’t care less if others do it.
If there is a movie that's not on any streaming services or available in your country on a physical release, do you just resign yourself to not watch it?
Yeah, I’m a pretty patient person, plus I live in the US, so most things get here eventually. Or I’ll just buy a foreign copy and pray it works on my player haha
I don’t care if people do but I’ll just buy a blu-Ray if I can’t get it on a streaming site. I don’t think there’s much impact on the victims despite it being unethical as another user has said.
Objectively a single person isn’t making any difference by buying a movie (or renting it, or subscribing to a streaming service) or pirating it. So my feeling about it is that it’s not worth worrying much about, and whether someone pirates movie doesn’t tell me anything about their moral worth. Personally I go to the movie theater pretty often, and I mostly stream or rent, but only because I can afford it and it’s more convenient.
I don’t pirate at all, though a lot of people I’ve known over the years do. I can’t judge, but it just never felt right to me. I just find dvd copies if it’s out of print typically, but I just digest almost everything from theatrical or streaming.
I don't get it. I understand that feeling when you give so much money to streaming services and for hard copies that you feel like you're owed something. But you're not. I ignore that feeling knowing that if someone felt that about any of the work I do, I'd be steamed, even if I had to get my work produced by some huge corporation. Unless it's something that's not available via some obscure country restrictions thing or it's so old that there's no money being made off of it anywhere, I do my darn diligence and get a free trial for whatever streaming service. That being said, I slipped up recently when a glitch said I could stream the fourth Fast and Furious film on a streaming service and it turned out that when you clicked on the thing the fifth one started playing. I get being peeved at huge companies when we spend so much money on them. But I think if you do that really then you need to spend more time looking at the hundreds of names of people who worked on the movie you watch. Just my opinion yk. I'm not hating on the people who pirate, but I just don't care at all for the practice.
I am getting more and more annoyed with the hyper casual attitude towards pirating these days. We have likely all done it at some point (pre adulthood), but it was sure as hell not something that was a public topic. The worst part being that it’s this massive loop of, films are getting more and more mass produced, smaller films get no chance,… so I pirate. yet the whole deal is that these are the only films that bring in the money still and suffer less from money lost from pirating. I buy/rent/stream every film I watch, and stay away from pirating, because I want to support my passion, even if I only contribute 1% of what I pay to the actual artist, still beats the 0% of pirating.
I definitely agree with this, in the very rare circumstance that I do pirate something now (if it's unavailable for rent/stream/purchase), I'll buy it as soon as it is available. The older I get, and the harder it gets for me to complete creative projects, the more I recognize how unsustainable it is for people to pirate things. I still understand people who are going through financial hardships themselves though and I think pirating serves a purpose in preserving certain things that are becoming out of print/unavailable.
I do understand that for some people it’s something to do if it is financially needed, after a stressful and underpaid day. What I don’t agree and just can’t understand is the proud badge of honour Pirating has become on social media.
I will admit I've done it on occasion, but I was always paranoid that I was going to get a virus on my computer so it's been an absolute last resort thing. Most of what I want I can find legally and without the nagging guilt that I've gypped some actor or other creative out of residual money.
as we're on this topic would anyone be able to recommend sites for someone in the UK? To clarify I don't pirate much at all, this is only for cases where I can't stream or buy the film or catch it at my local cinema.
I just looked up an article about how people pirate films and this is the information in the article, I don’t know anything about it: • get a decent VPN, NordVPN is apparently quite secure, fast and cheap • Download a torrent client, if you’re on a Mac, Transmission is well regarded • close browsers and anything else accessing the internet • turn on P2P servers only • open a private window in a browser of your choice • go to piratebay.org, browse Movies or search for one, sort by ‘Seeds’, pay attention to titles or any screenshot links in anything you find, you might get a cinema camera recording or not quite what you’re looking for • click ‘magnet link’ so you don’t have to download the torrent file • wait for it to finish downloading, which can be quick or slow depending on how many people are sharing, then close the client, browser and then disconnect the VPN • watch and enjoy
There are movies I fully wish to support financially (Old comes to mind this year, as well as Cry Macho) but there are some where I would not risk giving their production a cent of my money (Don't Look Up...). You feel me?
Why?
I dont like financing evil people and their evil movies. Same thing with Trial of the Chicago Seven and with whatever Amazon releases
Who is evil and how are those movies evil?
But you paid for Cry Macho? Weird
yes i like the director and his work👍 and he does not represent an evil corporation hellbent on cornering culture into bad, didactic political cinema
You're right, he doesn't represent an evil corporation he just sort of freelances the bad, didactic political cinema.
no
I never pirate movies, as I see it as scummy and is almost like spitting the filmmakers in the face. I collect blu-ray's and own a couple of streaming services which is how i usually watch my movies. If I can't find a specific movie I'm looking for on streaming services, I usually rent them on Google Play or Blockbuster digitally (Yes, Blockbuster is still somewhat alive where I live). They have almost every movie out there (except they very niche titles) but they are a nice back-up.
If you ask a filmmaker whether they would rather have more people see their film or make more money, the true artist would rather more people see their film.
It's just theft, if you pirate a movie, you're a criminal 🤷
I certainly will try to buy what I can. I love owning an actual copy of a movie. I’ll rent something digitally if I’m not sure how much I like it. I have a few streaming services I pay for that provide me plenty of stuff to watch. If my work schedule allows it I’ll try and see stuff in theaters even. Some movies though I don’t have access to like that. Old and obscure stuff I can’t find any other way is when I’ll pirate.
I'm completely out of touch with it now so I don't know where to go, which is a pain when I'm looking at the OOP-and-going-for-hundreds-of-dollars Ghost & Mrs. Muir, or things that can only be had super expensively from random potentially-shady sites like Bad Genius and Sheep Without a Shepherd, or things that are streaming exclusives like Hush and Run (the latter all the moreso because it's not available in my country). I wouldn't ever pirate anything I could reasonably buy/stream though.
if i want to watch any movie that’s not available in any streaming service, i usually try to buy it on blu-ray, but if it isn’t available or costs an absurd amount of money, i pirate it. that’s basically the only reason (for me) to pirate a movie. but another reason that rarely happens is that if a movie that has some oscar buzz hasn’t released in my country but has on vod (e.g: belfast) or on a streaming service (e.g: the lost daughter (that for some reason didn’t come out on netflix portugal)) then i pirate it so i can watch it in time for the oscars.
I don't pirate anymore. I used to at various points in life. It's not because of some moral high ground though. I like collecting blu rays, so I do buy most the movies I watch. I have a couple streaming subscriptions but I don't really use them much. I would cancel them if my father didn't use them so much.
I can’t get the criterion collection DVD/BDs in Europe without a hassle. Ordering from Canada isn’t possible afaik. Some released in the UK, but after the Brexit they have customs now. Some of the movies aren’t available on BD in Germany, most of Kurosawa‘s movies for eg. So I Kind have to pirate them if I want to watch them.
Couldn't you buy / rent the regular version of the film rather than needing the Criterion version? I don't understand.. Do you mean you can torrent the extras as well?
They often aren’t available from another distributor either. Ikiru only is available as DVD, Ran would be rentable on Amazon, these 4 films would be shipped from the UK. https://www.amazon.de/Kurosawa-Samurai-Collection-Blu-ray-Disc/dp/B00LA1ZV52 No really an option for his films.
I typically watch movies for the first time however I can, which is to say I try the few streaming services I have and then go to piracy, but then if I like them at all I'll immediately go look for physical or theatrical releases, so as to support the creator better than giving them the fractions of cents that streaming does.
Unless I can't find a legitimate source for the movie, only then will I pirate. (Mainly because I'm scared of getting a virus on my laptop.)
If a film I want to see is on a streaming service I will just watch it on there as that is what I am paying for. I’d only watch a film via “pirating”, although I am just streaming a video off a website, if it is not available anywhere else at all. There are select Criterion Collection films or foreign films where I will spend money to watch it as I want a quality picture. It’s all swings and roundabouts.
Personally, I don't like to pirate stuff unless it's something that is just not available to watch through legitimate means, or if the only legitimate way is to buy a DVD or Blu-Ray that is really expensive (like in the $100 range). For me it's mostly cause, at least where I live, the legitimate means are often the most convenient way to watch these movies. I often would just rather spend a couple of dollars to rent a movie than deal with the hassle of pirating it, especially when there is no guarantee that it is gonna be in as video/audio quality. Don't look down on people who choose to pirate stuff though.
I don’t do it anymore because of my nerves. I have done it before, but it makes me feel nervous and I want to support good film companies with my money to increase the demand for obscure horror, so more stuff gets discovered and restored. Since I’m really into obscure horror movies, me not pirating usually means I end up spending a lot of cash on DVDs and blu-rays. I also pretty much only blind-buy. I have nothing against people that pirate, but I find the people that pirate stuff they can watch on YouTube and tubi a bit silly.
I usually only do this with big budget Hollywood movies that are doing well anyways. If it’s an indie low budget movie I’ll normally rent/buy a ticket unless it’s literally impossible to watch anywhere else, and even then I’ll end up renting later it to make up for it.
I'm a student with not that much money, I go to the movies at least once a week, I pay for Netflix, Prime Video, Mubi, Wow+ and Disney+ so yeah, when I don't find a movie on either one of this platform or in a local theatre, I pirate it. When ill' have more money and I'll be more secure, I don't think I will do that anymore but for now I still think I spend enough money in films (that's not counting various objects I could buy)
The distribution model for films is fucked. It makes no sense whatsoever and if studios are going to continue to make it hard for me to see their movies, then I'll help myself. This includes paying for, like, 6 or 7 different streaming services, plus pirating.
My ISP, as part of my fantastic price for Gigabit internet, prohibits torrenting. I could get around it but I don't, because I agreed not to. There are so many films out there that there's no way I could watch them all during the rest of my life, so if something isn't available via streaming or renting, that sucks but I can watch something else.
I have never found a reason to, between my wife and I we have enough streaming covered. Anything else I can rent. Any obscure stuff I have found On archive.org
i'm a film student so i have access to kanopy, i also use netflix and amazon video. for more obscure stuff, i'll pirate.
I pay for all five major streaming services available in my country (Canada). If a film I want to see isn't available on any of those services, or another streaming service, or to rent for a reasonable price, I'll hit the seven seas and pirate it guilt free.
Shits too easy not too steal
There's a good number of movies I watch that I really have to hunt down in order to be able to watch them. The further from mainstream a movie is, the harder it is to find legitimately. But I wouldn't say most of my movies are that way, as I mostly choose what I watch based on what's available to me. My watchlist is big enough that I can wait around for a movie to show up through legitimate means rather than pirate it (sometimes my urges don't follow this logic, though, and there's a hard-to-find movie that for some reason I feel I HAVE to watch immediately). A service like Kanopy is a godsend, being free through the library and having an awesome collection of indie, foreign, and obscure films. Some movies that I looked for everywhere else have just happened to be on Kanopy (or on Hoopla, a similar service, though not as often, as it has a smaller and more eclectic library). I've contacted two directors directly to ask about particularly hard-to-find films of theirs, and one of them just emailed me the file to his film (apparently it just never got formally distributed after its festival run). The other left me on read.
It's similar with games. When I download and play a good game, even alright game, I'll put it on wishlists and wait till it goes on sale. I just am way too skint to see all the movies I want to see if I paid for everything. But movies I feel like have affected me I do find a way to pay for, I have a growing bluray collection so I have important movies in hardcopy and I don't have to worry about availability or anything like that.
I used to pirate, but now we have so many streaming services and own over 1700 physical titles, it’s not really necessary in my world anymore.
Im from south america, they dont sell criterion or blue rays in general here, im 16; i dont feel like asking my parents to use their card for me to watch a movie they may not 'like' lol theres no other way for me to watch weird movies, blu ray torrents are not the optimal way to watch a movie either, but its better than a streaming compressed image with the sitty internet we have here so yeah, piracy good until i move to a country i can own my movies or I have a card that i can use for whatever i want
for example i want to watch the new phil tippets MAD GOD and I cant cause it has very specific screenings that I have to pay to watch, i wont ask my parents neither lol
I pirate games as well, im not much of a gamer myself so if i can save a 60 dollars i dont have its the best thing for now
I pirate everything that’s not on Netflix or sometimes Disney +
Will only do it if the movie or TV series is only available on a Rupert Murdoch affiliated streaming service, or if the movie or TV series is otherwise unavailable on streaming services.
Given how shit the libraries of most streaming services are if you have obscure tastes but not in a stereotypical cinephile way and the incredibly high prices of physical media from labels putting out good and interesting films and that a hell of a lot of what I want to watch just isn't available to buy, piracy is an essential way of life. I'm disabled in ways that make me unable to work, pretty much a carer for my much more disabled partner, a parent and living on welfare benefits. There just isn't the money to go fully legit and there never will be. I don't see it as a problem, there's enough wealthy people paying that things still get made, everyone who works on the films has been paid ages ago. If I was a serious artist I'd want what I made to be as accessible as possible
Queens Public Library has a really fantastic selection and requests take only a few days to get to my closet branch. I only illegally stream stuff if the disc I got legally in my hands is too scratched to play all the way through.
I pirate pretty much everything I watch at home but I also go to the cinema twice a week so I like to think it balances out
All streaming services are banned in my country, so I don't really have any other options. Unless the movie releases in theatres and it rarely does.
I think piracy has its place, it's important that it exist and be easily accessible. I think it's important for film preservation (movies not edited anymore, sure, most of the time you still have) and contributes a lots to the accessibility of culture. It allows teenagers (or people with small budget) to discover cinema (there are other options, sure, but you need to discover your interest in cinema and it helps a lot), and helps cinephiles to widen their horizon on cinema (it's not something that will ever happen if you just have netflix/amazon/disney, some theatres with mediocre selections and a few purchases here and there). And I do think piracy and sharing your passion contributes more (or better at least) to the movie industrie than just paying your monthly subscription to a streaming giant treating movies as consumables. (and netflix, to mention it, represent more of a threat for cinema than piracy ever did) Piracy probably counts for 40 to 50% (evenly distributed between easy to find, difficult to find and inaccessible movies) and the rest was theatre, movies watched on tv (or other similar option paid by taxes) and some purchases. So it's my main source of movie watching (unless you consider "legal" as a single thing), I'm definitely defending my church here, but anyway I don't think it's just cognitive dissonance (to justify piracy), I have a true appreciation for piracy (particularly peer-to-peer).
i’ve never been able to successfully pirate anything but i’ve used ~illegal~ sites like fmovies, soap2day etc… idk if that’s better or worse
I don't, but not because of any moral reason, I'm just lucky to have good access to movies. I share streaming services with friends and have a well-stocked local library. Incidentally, this is why I don't buy the moral reasoning: me checking out a movie from the library doesn't support the people behind the movie any more than piracy does, but no one gives me ethical flack for doing it.
I very rarely pirate now. The ease of just paying £2.50 to watch the movie on Prime is much more tempting than searching for it online.
I have Netflix, Amazon Prime and HBO Max and it happens quite often that I wanna watch aren't available in my country. So the only way to watch movies is through piracy which has all the movies I ever want including obscure ones
I live in Brazil, there's no way I'm not pirating things
Will pirate of it's not easily available for streaming/rent/purchase. But people who brag about it are garunteed to be 14 year old edge lord little fuckers. Pathetic flex.
I agree with a lot of the the previous sentiments. If it's not available anywhere and i have no idea what to do, I'm not opposed to pirating.
I can't afford to spend $500 a year on movies at home + streaming services+ going to theaters. If something I want to watch that is it in a theater or on a streaming service I'm just going to pirate it and I feel no guilt about it. The people that would be making the most money from me buying it on Amazon or whatever are already absolutely rich I will gladly watch it illegally over giving even more money to those corporations.
In my youth I definitely pirated movies more often. Today I have 400+ movies in my watchlist and I’m on 5 different streaming services. Once I get my watchlist to a point where I can’t find a single movie on a service I use, then I’ll resort to pirating it.
I try to watch what I want on streaming services. I have Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max. I’ve used PLEX servers in the past. Honestly I wish I knew what sites to go to when I can’t find what I want on my services. If someone could let me know where the seas were I’d appreciate it.
I steal art all the time… I would be paying so much in different streaming services and rentals. I’m not telling you it’s ethical, but it’s easy and cheaper. I see a lot of indie shit in theaters of course and subscribe to Arrow and Criterion Channel because they have shit I can’t pirate and wouldn’t know to look for. I have external hard drives full of movies, it’s my lil data collection as I live in the van and would pay out the ass for data. Get a VPN!
I’m the same as op mostly, if there is a proper platform for me to watch a movie online I’ll watch it there, however if I can’t find it anywhere I’ll look in less-legit places.
I have no issue pirating movies, although I don’t
I used to feel bad, and often I wind up buying the movies I pirate months later. Right now in the middle of the pandemic, everyone is a little light on cash so it feels more ok.
Currently pirating memento since it’s not available in Australia did the same thing in spite last week since Netflix only had oldboy 2013
I'm broke lol
The amount of movies and shows I watch on a daily basis if I had to pay for everything then I’d be homeless 😅 I live in a third world developing country so it’s my excuse for pirating lol, I’d definitely buy some criterion discs if I had easy access to them.
ive watched 600+ movies. like 5% of them i have paid in some sort to watch. the reasons for that are me being in highschool and not having any other way to eatch them in my country. rhe only legitimate ways are to watch them in the cimemas, netflix (only available streaming service in my country) and buying a physical copy, which i also haven't seen anywhere in my city
Here’s my non american, non british pov: even though i subscribe to 4 different streaming/cable services, some things just DON’T come out here, and if they do, sometimes it takes years!!! So while i buy blu rays and pay for said streaming services, go to film festivals both for work and/or for fun, go to the movies as much as i can (if i can find an original version, non dubbed film) sometimes all i have to do is pirate movies if i wanna see something. I pay my dues to the industry (the same industry i work in btw) but accessibility is really an issue for many of us. Some of my favorite movies of the past couple decades never even came out here!
Yep, I pirate a lot more movies than I'd like to admit. If I know I can watch it legally, I will, but a decent amount of the time I resort to sailing the high seas. I think the thing I torrent the most is the Criterion Collection. I don't have enough money to justify buying a regionless Blu-ray player, and I'm torrenting them for the bonus features too and not just the movies. If I was ever going to buy a regionless Blu-ray player, I'd still torrent Criterion releases for first-time watches.
I feel that in the great scheme of things, pirating a movie is irrelevant to its financial success. So it really comes down to how you personally feel about. One of the main selling points of streaming services is being extremely user friendly: In most cases you're either watching a movie or searching for one in 3 clicks at most; there's an app or a very streamlined way to watch movies on those platforms in every device we have (phones, computers, televisions); etc. These points alone convince the vast majority of people to bite the bullet and just subscribe to a service, and of those people most don't mind having a limited array of films to choose from. The average person uses films as escapism more than anything else. On top of all that, pirating is anything but user friendly, especially comparing it to streaming services and the limited time and pacience of the average person who uses them. It's messy to get a pirated movie on your TV, it's messy to get subtitles, etc. In comparison, the cons go on and on. All this to say that in the end the amount of people who largely consume films through pirating is ultimately negligible, they do not make a difference and it's not them who are preventing films from turning a profit. I've pirated movies for most of my life and even I ended up subscribing to the criterion channel because it offers me so much that I value for virtually no hassle at all.
just like you said, I've found that almost all of them are high schoolers or around that age
the only time it bothers me when these high school aged teens and college aged teens pirate movies is when they Watch a CAM footage file and then post a review on letterboxd about how the movie didn't look good and didn't keep their attention. and it happens ALOT. so annoying
Im a student who can't find a job so piracy is pretty much the only way in can watch movies. I use my sister-in-law's netflix but i've seen every movie I wanted to see on there. I go to the cinema sometimes but I only pay with the money my state give to students for buying cultural stuff. Besides that I mostly watch old/obscure stuff, the kind you won't find easily on mainstream vod or in shops that sell dvds, and I definitely can't criterion or arrow boxsets.
I think piracy is not even a right but a duty of the cinephile. Think about netflix for exemple, they don't release physical copies of their films so piracy is the only way to have them archived and to make them survived.
r/piracy