Same story here.

Loved Netflix at first. I used to pirate a lot of tb shows and movies and then completely stopped once Netflix became decent.

Then they turned to shit and I'm back to pirating.

But not only that, I'm actually PAYING to pirate content because its a service that just combines all content from Netflix, Disney, apple, etc into one singular app that you can stream from any android device with the app.

It can have pretty shit quality sometimes, but at least I can watch it.

I will pay for shit if it's easy access.

Fuck Netflix, Amazon, apple, Disney, etc. greedy fucks.

The last game I pirated was Driver: San Francisco a couple years ago, because you couldn't (still can't? maybe?) buy it anywhere except for like, second-hand physical media, and I am not going through that hassle. I can't even remember the game I last pirated before that (Probably Sims 4, because fuck EA and fuck that laundry list of DLC -- but I can't be sure).

Music, movies, and TV shows, though? Oh yeah, baby, that's a weekly activity now. Netflix I dumped many years ago when the fracturing of content to twenty different streaming services happened, and Spotify I dumped just this last year for a few different reasons (the CEO donating to AI weapons programs, introducing a fuckass AI DJ, ICE ads, getting fed up with songs I either can't find or can find but aren't available in my region, or could listen to and enjoyed and then having them suddenly become unavailable, etc...)

I'm sure, someday, Steam will enshittify. Probably shortly after Gabe dies -- and it will be a dark day for me and millions of gamers worldwide. But for now, I'm more than happy to let Gabe empty my wallet with sales and convenience, because the gettin's been good for a couple decades and will likely remain so for another couple. I can't say the same for music, movies, and TV; I don't know if I'll ever end up paying for them again unless the distributors involved sort their shit out.

The only games I pirate are those that either :

_ are completely abandoned by their publishers and literally unavailable through other means

_ are stuff I already bought long ago and this is the most convenient way to get them to run (I have occasionally bought games again if it was cheap and convenient)

_ have turned to such shitty business models I don't want to give a cent to the publishers (and I almost don't even do that one anymore since usually they've found a dozen more ways to turn the game to shit anyway).

So yeah. Totally agree with the service problem.

There was also a brief period when spotify was good enough.

Same for me with Steam. I used to pirate everything gaming and only once I got Steam and a steady job, pirating stopped.

As for media, nop. Pirating never really stopped. When using Netflix is much more annoying than using myflixerz.to, you wont be coming back to pay for a service that is fundamentally crap.

I assure you, the enshittification of music streaming services is already here. Even before Spotify went completely to shit there were some things that just couldn't be found on the platform, and others still that I used to listen to suddenly becoming unavailable.

I, and a lot of other people, pirate music now because (among other reasons) having a hard drive full of MP3s or FLACs is something no corporation can arbitrarily decide to take away from you at any time.

Everyone has one of the streaming services

Yeah, I use Navidrome server. You can even host it on your phone in Termux (assumes Android). And I mean, in the easiest damn way possible.
apt install navidrome, and run navidrome. Though I recommend checking out the config options.
At least the Address option, Android has no firewall.

Yeah soulseek is amazing. You should check out nicotine+ if you're using Linux. It's a very nice frontend client using the same network.

No I've mostly just used jackett and qbt's default searchers. I used to use tixati in the past and that was great, with share searching and text chat communities

You're optimistic

Yeah, the landscape sure will change. Literally.

What vpns allow peer to peer? I heard there was a push to prohibit that in many vpns

What's an "outside," precious?

I think you meant: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T1P3HDSVogg

Nah, the Ellisons are a special kind of Evil.

That's not what buying means or at least not the "buying" I am talking about. I mean I give some amount of money and I receive a download of the purchased material, free of DRM. There is no subscription involved. Like Steam (with no DRM) or GoG, but for movies and shows instead of games.

If it is anything like Steam, then you keep this media available to redownload as long as you wan. Same as Steam games that got delisted are still downloadable and playable.

Agreed, isn't that what I just said? 😅

I feel like there's a story here

Where are you finding torrents? Been a long time. Is piratebay still a thing?