Chances are that you or someone you know is paying a subscription fee to access multiple titles on a designated app or website. There are an abundance of streaming services to choose from, but for some people (including members of the Foothill community) the platform they pay for on a monthly basis might not have their desired titles, leaving some to explore pirated websites. The most common form of engagement with piracy among the Foothill community is accessing bootlegged movies and tv shows. Some also pirate other content such as textbooks, live sports, or music.
The new age of piracy is different from that of the early 2000s. Streaming services are packed with bundles, student discounts, family plans, etc., but through all of them there is no singular platform that can provide all the shows you might be looking for since networks now provide their own services trying to capitalize on the streaming service trend, pushing consumers to find what they are looking for on pirated websites. Consumers are not going to piracy just because it is free but rather convenient, and are likely to stay with one streaming service but pirate the titles it does not offer. Streaming subscription services, with their specific limited catalogs, drive consumers towards piracy.
Since the early stages of the internet file sharing has hurt various content industries. Peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing websites (such as Napster, Kaaza and Limewire) which shared music and let users download the files for free, hit hard on the physical music industry and changed how the digital age treats music today. Later those same websites would get hit with copyright lawsuits from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)—a group that represents record labels—terminating the ways these websites used to function (NPR). In response, a couple of companies decided to capitalize on the digital music trend and make subscription plans for millions of music titles all in the convenience of streaming apps, solving (at least temporarily) the surge of piracy in the early 2000s. As a result, these platforms have led to sharing a lot of the titles between themselves where the only differences are when the artist specifies where to release a special song which lowered music piracy.
Having consumers pay more money towards streaming services for specific shows leads viewers to pirate movies or tv shows not included in their subscription, rather than paying for a whole new subscription. Today the greatest influx of piracy is in the entertainment business. In 2020 entertainment companies decided to make their own streaming platforms to capture the market of people staying home. In doing so, they made a larger market of streaming platforms for entertainment. Pulling off certain shows and movies off the streaming giants at the time (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime), with the idea that viewers would migrate to different streaming platforms based on the shows they used to watch. A key example is Netflix and “The Office”, when NBC decided to create their own streaming platform—Peacock—and took the rights back to capture more viewers on their platform, “The show is a viewership juggernaut”(CNN). This strategy influenced many other companies to take back rights to their shows. “It’s easier just to pirate because if you pay for a subscription service it’s still limited,” shared a Foothill community member. “Pirating sites are more open and they have a lot more content that you can watch.” As a result many community members noted that they have just one subscription service, and for the titles it doesn’t include, they pirate them. This is a response towards the selective shows that streaming services thrive on for viewership and continues the cycle of piracy among consumers from the business practices.
Bundles ultimately solve the issue of convenience for consumers. Allowing all the streaming services—although on different platforms—all accessible through one payment plan system. A key response from a Foothill community member mentioned their subscription service is bundled with others. Netflix was repeated among the Foothill community on insight in their subscription plans. Looking over Netflix’s subscription plan was $8.99 a month—their lowest option—which includes ads and not being able to access the full catalog. Disney+, Hulu and HBO Max provide a similar offer at $19.99–their lowest option–as a bundle for the three with ads. “I have not pirated in a long time,” a Foothill community member said; elaborating that when they did pirate a long time ago, it was for music.
There is a solution to multiple streaming platforms: a bundle. Most cable companies offer these bundles now; although most of them include hundreds of live channels with it as well, stacking the price higher because of live channel inclusions. Bundling 3-4 streaming services together could lower rates of piracy. Not only are viewers paying for the service of a couple streaming services, but are more likely to find a show they were looking for that was not available on a single platform, thus expanding the catalog for them.
A large part of why piracy is often portrayed as the best option is because it doesn’t require a cancellation process. Piracy will always be a problem within the age of the internet and there is not much that can stop it, but it’s best to keep it low to none or forgo it completely considering actors, writers, directors, and others should get paid for their work; these are the people making the content in the first place and they should have a legitimate platform for their creativity. People should pay to access different shows, but it is difficult when streaming services make it a hassle to go through. In 2025, California—specifically the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC)—made it easier for people to cancel their subscriptions. “The FTC finalized its ‘click-to-cancel’ rule, requiring companies to provide a ‘simple’ mechanism to cancel negative option contracts” (Arnold & Porter). These business practices are what usually have viewers stay away from paying subscriptions, but putting laws like these in place should make streaming services a good option to many more people.
As streaming wars continue, viewers turned to piracy as a solution, gaining not only convenience within the pirated websites but also saving a couple of dollars on the way. Digital music changed the way streaming services operate today. Entertainment streaming services also need to change. Positive and needed changes range from making it easier for viewers to cancel their subscriptions or join bundle plans, rather than sticking to multiple plans when there is only one title being watched. For now, piracy becomes the most common way to watch movies and tv shows while networks figure out how to team up with each other. Piracy is a convenience today, while people still figure out which subscription plans they want to indulge in without the hassle of paying separately for each individual platform.