I remember being laughed at when I admitted I still buy CDs, DVDs, or BluRays a few years ago.

Going that way is a great way to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Messing with their equipment is going not going to end well.

Ad block is NOT piracy. And use Ublock Origin.

Way back in the day, my best friend had a family friend that owned a computer software store. He rented games and gave us copies of the latest and greatest copy programs with a wink-wink and a nudge-nudge.

Remember, no business is required to tell the truth. Had a pipeline go through my backyard and you would not believe the lies that company told. Glad I lawyered up instead of believing the lies.

Only if you sold it. Back when cassette tapes first came out, the mystic music industry sued, and the Supreme Court ruled it fair use. So VHS tapes were under the same umbrella. We wouldn’t get that same ruling now.

Holy hell, that was one hell of an autocorrect on mobile.

It the same mechanism. They can do it, they just don’t want to.

They can. I buy and gift games to my son all the time.

Including cell calling?

That info can go stale quickly as content licensing changes. I’ve ran into that plenty.

There are still plenty of good deals in streaming if you have shifted to on-demand. If you want live TV or sports, they’re out to gouge the fuck out of you. Luckily my Wife came around to on-demand only and an antenna. Of course, they’re trying hard to take away the antenna option from everyone with ATSC 3.0.

Attacking piracy AND competition in one fell swoop! Capitalism!

There are lots of streaming platforms, but no real competition. Because the studios and networks hide behind the streaming services and price gouge like crazy. They know people will blame the streaming service.

Think that is just a Google thing. I took, got sick of it and use Duckduckgo instead.

But you’re not thinking of the CEO’s next yacht! Or the shareholders!

Those are the costs of doing business, and can be greatly exaggerated. And other counties produce profitable drugs even with price restrictions. We’re so accustomed to price gouging, that we don’t recognize it.

When I was a broke teenager I pirated games. But back then there wasn’t any online play (80s).

Now I primarily pirate movies and TV shows. And most of that is ripping DVDs and Blu-ray discs, which I still buy when I really like something. Then supplement with torrents.

But I’ve never debated the ethics. Was it Thoreau that said something that the effect of, if you engage in civil disobedience, even against unjust laws, you must be ready to accept the consequences.

For the NHL and MLB you’re just fucked. Those leagues completely failed negotiations. Maybe Amazon picking up a big chunk of Bally’s will get us our teams on Prime. Maybe.

In general, all the major sports leagues (except maybe Premier League) are firmly stuck in the past and view cable as great. Maybe we’ll see some better options when each league re-negotiates the TV deals. But even when that happens, expect the NHL to fuck it up somehow.

That was it, thanks!

The question was already answered, so I thought I’d be funny.