Originally published at: Let's have a serious talk about piracy, folks | Boing Boing
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My favorite meme mocking those ads:
Also, I must:
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We’ve been having these … ummm … serious talks for a long time
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All I remember anymore is the “war on terror,” purity rings, big tent misogyny, pop star endorsed hot pink baby themed edible body cremes … Nu metal.
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Nukular, Shrub, Haliburton, Shock n Awe, Sad Damn Hussein killed my daddy, and President Cheney.
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Don’t copy that floppy!
The more things change, the more they stay the same. 1980s anti-piracy ads were high-larious (as we used to say).
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It’s all fun and games…
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Put simply, most folks “below the line” (the working folks, not the speculators) have already been paid for their work on projects. The folks above the line are the ones who speculate, but also introduce nefarious schemes for distribution to separate a captive audience from a more than the usual amount of revenue…by selling outrageously overpriced concessions (popcorn & candy, concert t-shirts, etc.) or allowing corporate scalpers like Ticketmaster into the mix.
It’s all completely speculative until the ticket is sold, and it’s also an unfair power imbalance against consumers.
I have no sympathy.
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There’s another song I’m going to share with the kids in my life. Truly wonderful.
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Away to the cheating world go you,
Where pirates all are well-to-do;
But I’ll be true to the song I sing,
And live and die a Pirate King. 
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there was at least one other distinction: in the 90s, landlines were still the default. cellular was still a niche item and very expensive. the cheap version of wireless were pagers, but those were also a niche item associated with drug dealers, emergency plumbers, and youth.
in the late 90s, the tide began to turn, prices went down, coverage greatly improved, and the contracts became cheaper than ma bell. plus the idiotic practice of paying extra for long distance calls was eliminated from wireless contracts. I was a holdout among my peers and even I got a cellphone in 2000. henceforth, they became the default and landlines for individuals went the way of the dodo bird.
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yeah, I liked it better when it was called “it’s the end of the world as we know it” by REM
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…faintly recall that an early glossed over plot point of The Matrix (1999) was that Thomas Anderson, known by his hacking pseudonym “Neo” was “hacking” pirated downloads. Which rather aligns “The Agents” with DMCA RIAA industry captured regulatory agencies … so when one pirates a copy of The Matrix some spoon which isn’t there is bent a bit sideways maybe
(ah… MiniDisks)
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Best thing about the advert telling you not to steal media? It, allegedly, stole its music.
Look up “You Wouldn’t Steal a Car” on Wikipedia
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(Welcome to BoingBoing)
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IT Crowd was such a great show.
Richard Ayoade also plays the voice of Zero in The Mandalorian!
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Also, with the current set up for streaming, some make it damn near impossible to watch their shows/films if you don’t subscribe to their service. Disney+ and Apple TV are the worst in that regard, as they seem to think that people shouldn’t have any access outside of their streaming services. So you make your content difficult to access, of course people are going to “steal” it… 
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Piracy never went away. It dropped for awhile, but the fragmentation of the streaming market is driving it back up. Piratebay is still alive and kicking.
When everything was available on one or two services (Hulu, Netflix, etc) people were happy to pay for it. But now everyone is starting their own streaming service. If you want to watch the same stuff you could before, you have to subscribe to multiple services, and the cost is rapidly approaching that of cable TV.
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