I cannot, in good conscience, pirate shows that are legitimately available through some streaming service or other normal content distribution method.
Discussion
I gave up when there became more than 5 streaming services that all want 13 bucks/mo
Just hop between services. Watch all the movies or shows you want to see on one, then cancel it and switch to a different service.
If you want options do 2 or three at a time.
You won't be able to keep up with *everything*, but with a little patience you should have access to more than enough content.
Why not?
Do you believe that the property rights of others prevent you from configuring the electrons inside your computer in whatever arrangement you might like?
It's theft to aquire digital property without paying a fair price when that property is reasonably available for purchase from the producer or a legal distributor.
I think the logic is different for things like digital copies of media you've already purchased, or digital copies of media which is unavailable for sale anywhere. But that doesn't apply to the vast majority of streamed content.
What is digital property?
When exactly did these television actors homestead your computer?
A laborer is worth his wage. Even if no one is still making money from this or that particular content you're watching, a streaming service like Netflix will use the revenue from subscriptions to continue to produce new shows or movies. This creates fairly-paid jobs for actors, writers, producers, and all manner of supporting staff, including the teams that maintain the internet infrastructure that helps us access this content.
It's best for the common good to pay a fair price for media and convenient streaming, rather than torrenting it.
If you want to own digital media, buy a copy outright (such as on DVD), and you can do with it as you please, within reasonable limits.
If you pirate the movie, who does any additional work besides yourself?
It's not like you're kidnapping the actors and forcing them to re-enact everything. The actors are not inside the tiny box. They're off enjoying their lives and won't even know that you made them perform this film an extra time.
As I said, it's not only the actors who are benefitting from the purchase or rental of the media. It is also any number of other individuals who support the distribution of the media.
If a company has reasonably acquired the legal rights to distribute a piece of media, then the individual ought to respect that legal right and pay a reasonable price for that distribution, provided he individual doesn't already own a legally-acquired copy of that media.
Theft is a crime in which the criminal takes something from an injured party who is harmed by deprivation of the stolen property.
In file-sharing, you take something from someone other than the "injured" party and don't deprive anyone of anything.
In what sense is it theft?