When I was around 9 or so, I remember watching a movie broadcast on public access TV one evening. (I didn’t have cable growing up.) They took 2-1/2 hours to broadcast an hour and a half film. It felt like every 10 minutes, we’d get another 5-7 minute ad break!
After the 5th ad break, I got frustrated and walked away from it. I was tired of my story being constantly interrupted by irrelevant ads! I decided right then that advertisements were the worst thing in the world and I’d do everything in my power to avoid being exposed to them.
Fast-forward 3 decades… I’m in my early 40s now and I haven’t watched TV since I was a kid. I’m a huge movie and TV show nerd, but I either rented physical media, borrowed from friends, or pirated them.
For a while, I paid for streaming services so I could watch all I wanted without ads. But now ads are encroaching upon paid services, so I’ve dumped all my streaming services and gone back to pirating.
I was tired of paying for a subscription for sub-par access to content anyway. What if the streaming service decided not to renew their license for a show I was enjoying? It’s just gone. What’s the point in constantly paying monthly fees when I don’t even get to maintain access to the stuff I want? I’d rather make a one-time payment for a physical copy that I have control over forever.
In the last 5+ years, I’ve been using Plex to host my digital library of movies and shows (and music). I made a one-time payment for the lifetime Plex Pass and now I have access to all their advanced tools and apps without any subscription fees. I can host my own custom-built digital library of media and I can stream it to my phone, computer, tablet, smart TV, etc. anywhere in the world.
I built a NAS server to exclusively host Plex and with my high-speed Internet, I have no problem watching media in 1080p streaming or better. I currently have over 2,500 movies and about 400 TV shows in my personal library, and they only go away if I personally remove them.
I actually use their Plexamp app to stream my digital music library to my phone, which I then connect to my car via Bluetooth. Now I have my own personal radio in the car, which I can customize however I want. Play specific music, skip songs I don’t want to listen to, and no ads.
I feel I’m morally right in pirating media because streaming companies are making billions every year bleeding people of their hard-earned cash for a product those people don’t technically own, and then riddling it with advertisements to constantly interrupt the vibe. You’re giving up money each month and in exchange, experiencing a fleeting moment of temporary access to media. Until I can buy access to specific digital media and have full control over them forever, I’ll be pirating all my content.
On a related note, I don’t pirate video games at all. I’m a PC gamer (mostly because I hate the artificial “console wars” and got tired of buying a new console every year or two) and I have a Steam library of over 4,000 legitimate games.
I love Steam because you buy individual products and then they’re yours forever. Even if Steam is forced to remove a game from their store… if you paid for it, it stays in your library forever. You can always download and install it on any computer you’re logged into. I actually dread the day Gabe Newell dies or leaves Valve and some new guy takes over who only cares about making money. If that day ever comes, I’ll start pirating games too.
I won’t give a cent of my money to Epic Games because of their predatory anti-competition practices. They lock down games to be exclusive to their store for the first year (or forever, if they own the development company). I get that Steam dominates the market, but you don’t claim a share of that market by stiffing the competition and forcing gamers to use your product or nothing. Epic can go to hell with that garbage.
If the entertainment industry adopted the same practice Steam does, but with films, TV shows, and music, I’d definitely start buying all my media. But I’m not going to take part in their greedy practice of denying me ownership over content I paid for. So Plex is my personal streaming service, for content I personally control.
When I was around 9 or so, I remember watching a movie broadcast on public access TV one evening. (I didn’t have cable growing up.) They took 2-1/2 hours to broadcast an hour and a half film. It felt like every 10 minutes, we’d get another 5-7 minute ad break!
After the 5th ad break, I got frustrated and walked away from it. I was tired of my story being constantly interrupted by irrelevant ads! I decided right then that advertisements were the worst thing in the world and I’d do everything in my power to avoid being exposed to them.
Fast-forward 3 decades… I’m in my early 40s now and I haven’t watched TV since I was a kid. I’m a huge movie and TV show nerd, but I either rented physical media, borrowed from friends, or pirated them.
For a while, I paid for streaming services so I could watch all I wanted without ads. But now ads are encroaching upon paid services, so I’ve dumped all my streaming services and gone back to pirating.
I was tired of paying for a subscription for sub-par access to content anyway. What if the streaming service decided not to renew their license for a show I was enjoying? It’s just gone. What’s the point in constantly paying monthly fees when I don’t even get to maintain access to the stuff I want? I’d rather make a one-time payment for a physical copy that I have control over forever.
In the last 5+ years, I’ve been using Plex to host my digital library of movies and shows (and music). I made a one-time payment for the lifetime Plex Pass and now I have access to all their advanced tools and apps without any subscription fees. I can host my own custom-built digital library of media and I can stream it to my phone, computer, tablet, smart TV, etc. anywhere in the world.
I built a NAS server to exclusively host Plex and with my high-speed Internet, I have no problem watching media in 1080p streaming or better. I currently have over 2,500 movies and about 400 TV shows in my personal library, and they only go away if I personally remove them.
I actually use their Plexamp app to stream my digital music library to my phone, which I then connect to my car via Bluetooth. Now I have my own personal radio in the car, which I can customize however I want. Play specific music, skip songs I don’t want to listen to, and no ads.
I feel I’m morally right in pirating media because streaming companies are making billions every year bleeding people of their hard-earned cash for a product those people don’t technically own, and then riddling it with advertisements to constantly interrupt the vibe. You’re giving up money each month and in exchange, experiencing a fleeting moment of temporary access to media. Until I can buy access to specific digital media and have full control over them forever, I’ll be pirating all my content.
On a related note, I don’t pirate video games at all. I’m a PC gamer (mostly because I hate the artificial “console wars” and got tired of buying a new console every year or two) and I have a Steam library of over 4,000 legitimate games.
I love Steam because you buy individual products and then they’re yours forever. Even if Steam is forced to remove a game from their store… if you paid for it, it stays in your library forever. You can always download and install it on any computer you’re logged into. I actually dread the day Gabe Newell dies or leaves Valve and some new guy takes over who only cares about making money. If that day ever comes, I’ll start pirating games too.
I won’t give a cent of my money to Epic Games because of their predatory anti-competition practices. They lock down games to be exclusive to their store for the first year (or forever, if they own the development company). I get that Steam dominates the market, but you don’t claim a share of that market by stiffing the competition and forcing gamers to use your product or nothing. Epic can go to hell with that garbage.
If the entertainment industry adopted the same practice Steam does, but with films, TV shows, and music, I’d definitely start buying all my media. But I’m not going to take part in their greedy practice of denying me ownership over content I paid for. So Plex is my personal streaming service, for content I personally control.