I have been using PayPal increasingly for online payments. Not sure why. I have heard old stories about PayPal but Honey seems really bad. Its basically a given that any fintech company are going to be dodgy scammers but PayPal seemed almost grown up and respectable. Guess not.
There will always be the hoarders. You can’t collect everything on any sort of wage/salary and live. If you have a compulsion then piracy is a reasonably harmless past time. You aren’t depriving anyone of income for something no normal person could reasonable afford.
For regular content consumers it is simply free market economics working. Companies innovate and offer great products and value and they take people away from the black market. Then the companies get greedy, form loose deniable cartels and start fixing prices prices at higher levels and cutting quality and consumers go elsewhere. They want the profits from a free market but don’t want to play the game and compete on value and quality. Sucks for them. The government grants them a legal monopoly on monetizing their IP but it doesn’t give them a clue on how to build successful businesses.
Honestly I don’t think piracy is great. I would rather pay a fair price for easily discoverable content, own it forever on all mediums, and have the bulk of the money go to the creatives who made it so they can pay their bills and feed their families. I don’t watch a lot and the little I do should be affordable. I don’t feel compelled to collect it all.
But then I go to introduce one of my kids to all the age appropriate comics/graphic novels I bought on Comixology for an older sibling. But Comixology closed down and all the content moved into Kindle with a heap of all ages content, not all appropriate. And Amazon are too cheap to offer family sharing outside the US. So hundreds of dollars in Bezos pocket with no way to put it on a device for my kid. I could waste time breaking the DRM or pirate but I am leaning towards a return to dead trees.
Netflix is crap and getting worse, jumped ship ages ago. Disney is killing genre movies and tv with all their marvel/star wars IP. Both are driven by algorithms and greed and recycle IP instead of taking risks.
I shouldn’t still need to point this out but most boomers are poor. They also have a lot of medical issues and are mistreated by the health system and aged care. They are also mentally abused by cynical political strategists that target their fears and drive them half crazy.
If you haven’t noticed the wealth divide is increasing and the rich are getting further away from regular people. That is happening despite rich boomers dying. Their wealth is being inherited and their replacements are just as mean.
Anytime you see a divisive comment like old.people, immigrants, trans are at fault question the source and if it is worth repeating. Its possible a lot of such comments originate in enemies of free societies. Community is important. It’s the foundation for a fair and peaceful society. We can’t have community while we have this mindset of excluding the other.
Digital licence is all I have used for about 7 years. Police here are careful never to reach for a phone as they can’t legally. You display the licence and give it a shake to animate it and they copy the number down in their notebook. If the police ever did illegally take a phone I would wipe it and replace it and lodge a complaint.
They may have similar protections in Europe. People often post opinions on social media without checking facts. I get why on commercial social media where everything is rage bait. But i don’t know why people can’t take a few minutes to check local laws before posting here.
The only software I have paid for in the last couple of years are games. The licensing is still crooked but they are ephemeral entertainment so its not like they control your life.
The problem with commercial software isn’t the price. It is the lock in. They have you by the balls whether you pirate or pay so I don’t pirate as it doesn’t address my main issue with closed source software which ismt price but control. I prefer to adapt, sometimes live with less features and use free and open source.
Its hard if you have to work with others which is the whole network effect BS, everyone is on Reddit and shitter so why aren’t you. If you can work independently though you can get a lot done and have more control.