Not that I'd ever condone illegal activity, but I'm just putting it out there that piracy is broadly more convenient, cheaper, has no DRM, and you can keep the media for as long as you want.
It's obviously theft as well, but Warner Bros has already set the precedent that "stealing property is ok".
I'm happy to buy games, but once there's literally no legal way to get a game (or movie or show), then piracy is the only solution to keep that piece of media alive.
Sure, I've bought more than my share of movies, games, books, TV series, but at this point I've kind of drawn a line in the sand of "I will only buy physical media" or "I will only buy it if I can get a DRM-free copy" (e.g. GOG.com). I don't like the idea of my media disappearing the second it becomes inconvenient for the entertainment company.
Sadly, it feels like Blu-rays are becoming a rare thing, particularly in the US. I wanted to buy legit copies of Infinity Train and Close Enough before they were taken off HBO Max, but as far as I'm aware there's no legitimate way to purchase Close Enough. At least Infinity Train can be bought off Amazon streaming still I guess.
It feels like these companies want it both ways. They want total control of the media landscape, while simultaneously taking away the media that we actually like, presumably for tax writeoffs.
It’s a sentiment I broadly agree with. It really bothers me that companies feel entitled to milk money out of us forever now, since you can’t purchase stuff anymore. Everything requires a subscription so we can forever have money extracted and given to our benevolent corporate overlords.
I was fine buying blu-rays, I have over 400 of them, but I don’t want to pay $70+ a month until the end of time to sign up for Netflix and Hulu and Peacock and Paramount Plus and Criterion Channel and ad-free Amazon and HBO Max and YouTube Premium and Disney Plus and Apple TV+ and probably a few stragglers I forgot about.
Let me buy the physical media, or a DRM-free download of the TV shows and movies I want to watch.
Until these entertainment companies fix this, pirated content is just simply a better product.
It's obviously theft as well, but Warner Bros has already set the precedent that "stealing property is ok".