Buy European

I have started subscribing to services in Europe now. They have different content, but that is fine. I want Europe to have more TV shows and movies. The American ones I'll probably just pirate if I really really want to watch it. We'll see.

I am not a huge fan of IP and copyright in the first place, I see that it has a value, but don't like how long it lasts. There should be a reasonable time of 10-15 years or something, but not more in my opinion.

The legality is not an argument that works for me. The only thing that matters is ethics / morality.

At the moment I don't want to support American business, and that is more important to me. I have been a paying subscriber to several services for a long time, but no more.

I guess the question is if they have lost a "sale" / "subscriber" that they would have gotten if I did not have the opportunity to pirate.

I don't think they have, I would not want to pay if I had no other option either.

Always has been.

Always had been

2 day old account.

Piracy isn't stealing because you don't take the original away from the creator, you just create a copy which doesn't detract at all from the original copy. In fact, copyright is more a tool for stealing than piracy, as large corporations will get small creators to sign over the rights to the content they created, consolidating 'ownership' rights in the hands of a bunch of greedy corporations (Disney, Microsoft, etc) rather than the people that actually created them.

Starting?

This is something that I wrestle with. There are certain companies I don’t want to spend money with, but I want to support the work and the crews who work on those things.

The argument is my money doesn’t go to the crews. But my time spent watching adds to the metrics that gets these shows and albums greenlit, but ultimately it comes down to how you feel about those quandaries.

I make games for a living so I feel that supporting is best for me. If no one bought the games I worked on I couldn’t feed my son. Instead I’m making more conscious decisions about where and how I spend my money. I just switched to Proton for my email, I use Kagi for search. I support teams I care about and support services I believe in. I buy games I want to play. I don’t think too much about the other things.

If a show is not available in my country easily, I do pirate. That’s kinda the only thing I pirate these days.

piracy is ethical with only small exceptions like when the content is produced by a low income author/artist

It’s always ethical to steal from billionaires. The artists, actors, musicians, etc get paid by the production companies. When you pirate a TV show, that cast and crew has already been paid. You’re not stealing from the poor struggling stagehand; You’re stealing from the billion dollar corporation that paid them pennies and ensures they’re still struggling.

I think actual artists get virtually nothing from streaming services. If you find art that you do like, considering directly supporting the artists. For example, go to a musical artists live show or buy merch from their website. I’m sure their are better ideas out there.

Don't forget that the EU Commission funded a report to document the impact of file sharing and then buried it when they found out that it was actually beneficial to the creators. So if you want to engage in file sharing, you're actually helping them.

Do what you will with that information. If you really want to boycott, then boycott the content altogether. If you can't hold back, then download them, but you're helping them out anyway by doing that.

The best thing you can do is support your local art scene and find better alternatives.

Honestly, framing the whole thing as "disrespecting hard work and effort" sounds suspiciously like American anarchocapitalist nonsense.

Me watching or buying stuff is not a relationship and does not express support, respect or anything other than a commercial transaction. When I want to express support I express support (primarily by voting) and when I express disapproval I express disapproval (primarily by voting for people who will properly regulate your whole deal into submission).

I don't express myself with money, I express myself with political action, thank you very much.

Look up how much money a band will make per stream from Spotify:

Spotify pays artists between $0.003 - $0.005 per stream on average. That works out as an approx revenue split of 70/30 - so that’s 70% to the artist/rights holders and 30% to Spotify. REMEMBER: The rights holders of a song can include; the publisher, songwriter and the master recording owners (i.e. the artist and/or label if they’re signed to one).

So if you listen to your favorite album with 10 tracks, the payout will earn $0.03- $0.05 and the artist has to split that, too. If you really like the album and listen to it 100 times, that will be $3-$5. So maybe go to a concert or buy a vinyl record and everybody will be better of. The impact of you pirating an album and listening to it 10 times is null