[Rant] Why the fuck do entertainment industries think we've got so much disposable income?

https://www.pcworld.com/article/496050/riaa_thinks_limewire_owes_75_trillion_in_damages.html

In 2011 the RIAA sued Limewire for more money than existed on the entire planet.

They know, they don't care.

They don't think you have disposable income. They don't care about you if you don't.

They know some people can't afford it, they just do not care.

They push as far as they can. As long as people are willing to pay they’ll keep vying for our incomes. Cancelled subscriptions is the only language they understand.

They simply want to make money for not creating any new content. They want subscribers not customers. They are currently in a new mode: rent seeking.

Pirate until they get their act together and offer something that has all content available, simply dividing up the proceeds fairly by percentage of viewing time.

Piracy is an availability problem. These assholes built 200 walled-gardens and are wondering why people don’t go to theirs.

Like other's have said, most don't care; however I believe there are some that are also disconnected from everything outside of their lives. They believe the distribution of wealth is linear when really it's more of a log function.

Now I’m going to say that playing games, listening to music, watching shows/movies and even reading books is a bit of a luxury.

That's our culture you're talking about. In my view, it's a human right.

simple, shareholders want infinite GROWTH 📈

Big businesses couldn't care less about where the money comes from as long as it ends up in their pockets.

Only thing stopping them from sending hired thugs to your house to shake the change out your pockets is the law. And even then they might try if the profit outweighs the penalty.

In the darkened boardroom of ShittyStreamingService, the presentation continues:

"....and so we've set our price at $15 per month. This is a reasonable price that everyone in our target demographics can afford."

What the numpties at ShittyStreamingService haven't considered is that yes, maybe I can afford $15 per month. But I can't afford it for each of the 7,836 different streaming/music/gaming services!!

Is not about how much we have available, is about how much they think they can squeeze us.

What pisses me off the most with the entertainment industry, is how they expect you to buy the same things whether it’s a different format or on a platform multiple times.

No, they don't. Yes, there are the people who will buy every single release of every single disney movie. But the general idea is that just because someone bought The Fifth Element on DVD twenty years ago doesn't mean they are buying every single new 4k UHD re-release. Obviously that would be preferable but...

Furthermore, they willingly take away shows, movies .etc on a reguar cyclic basis on streaming platforms.

That annoys the piss out of me. But... that was how TV worked for decades. Seinfeld will always be on at 7 PM on TBS every single day until the end of time. But the three people who actually liked Coach? Once that got replaced by... Becker? It was "gone forever" and no longer something you watch when you are skipping school at lunch. And if you were REALLY a Wings superfan? You bought it on tape.

Most of this boils down to... we actually have it REALLY good these days. I remember when I had to make it a point to stop off at Best Buy on my way home from work for a month because I had read that a really cool CRPG called "Evil Islands" was coming out and knew that Best Buy would buy like three copies. And some random soccer mom was likely to buy something for her kid while she was buying batteries. And, of course, Best Buy wouldn't tell anyone when they got new games and when they would put them on the shelves.

Now? I can hear about my dream game and still wait until a week or two after launch for a sale because Steam will "never" run out of copies.

It’s like, leave us the fuck alone. If something is not available anymore with absolutely no assured plans to bring it back for re-release and to be available on even streaming platform which leaves us to pirate - let it fucking be. What, are you going to make a shitstorm for people who buy movies and shows while thrifting? Surprised these fuckers haven’t gotten to that process yet because of how god damn greedy they are.

I personally have no problem pirating shit if I can't get it otherwise (mostly because I would rather a proper blu-ray rip or to have it on Steam/GoG/whatever). But I will always call bullshit on that mentality of "We are just pirating because we can't get it otherwise!"

Decade or two back and abandonware was very much a thing. Plenty of us were signed up to private trackers so we could share CyClones or Star Crusader because those were dead games. And plenty of those trackers had specific rules about not having anything that is currently for sale... or Nintendo... because they totally were about preservation and it was nothing about getting sued. Then CD Projekt start up this Good Old Games site and it is exactly what we were all asking for. And... that led to discussions on what happens when suddenly those old dos games ARE available.

End result? GoG rips are the preferred medium because they are DRM-free(-ish) and so forth. And it was obvious it was never about preservation and was just about wanting to pirate shit. Which... is fine. Just obnoxious when people pretend they are noble because they want to play Darklands without paying.

Which is kind of the other recurring theme. People want to be pirates. Cool, steal that shit. Just don't pretend you are morally superior and a freedom fighter and blah blah blah. You want free shit. Cool.

People don't. They're in massive debt.

They don't assume we have unlimited money, they assume they'll make enough sales to justify making it (and paying all the people who made it).

Yeah, some companies are making ridiculous profits and underpaying staff. This isn't some pro-capitalism comment.

Taking things off of streaming platforms or not making old stuff otherwise available usually boils down to bureaucracy and legal stuff. Certain people need to be paid, or have the right to veto their content being sold, or stuff like that sometimes. And sometimes the companies have a legal obligation to either protect their IP or ensure things stay "offline".

I don't like it, but I know it's not always simple.

Because they will always have people who support them, regardless of how mean they are, as long as there are people afraid of "pirating" this will never change.

It's the lack of anti trust enforcement in the USA that causes this. There is little to no competition left in many markets.

Price your goods right up to what the market can bear. Business sense.

Because "we" do, as evidenced by the people willing to pay the price(s)

Probably because consumers have made them billionaires.

Insert Arrested Development banana meme here

Just a reminder if you want free books / audiobooks check out Libby, it connects to your local library. You just need a library card!

they look at how most of us seem to be able to pay landlords and got jealous 😂

They know we can't. They need to tell their shareholders this though lest they gnash their teeth.