Avi Joshi ’26 is an English major. He is a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, eats a lot of food and plays the drums. Contact him at asjoshi@wm.edu.
Vaughn Mitchell ’27 is a data science and economics double major. He is a member of Alpha Tau Omega and Google Developer Student Club. His favorite color is orange, and he has a Level 12 Town Hall. Contact him at vmitchell01@wm.edu.
The views expressed in the article are the authors’ own.
We don’t claim to know much about sports. In fact, most of the entertainment we get from watching sporting events never comes from the game itself. It comes from ironic commentary, frivolous banter and a careful distance we use to buffer ourselves from those who actually have a stake in what’s on the screen. As reporters poignantly announce the play-by-play with smooth delivery, we find humor in a certain overconfidence to do the same. It’s a painfully awful yet deliberately crafted sportspeak, still hollow but substantive enough to give the impression we may just know what we’re talking about. Truth is, we have no fantasy teams in need of restructuring, nor parlays we should’ve been smarter about. Between the howls of excitement and arguments-turned-shouting matches we hear, there’s one thing that we and those who take sports more seriously can agree on: streaming is expensive, and pirating is convenient. In no way do we wish to idolize piracy as the catch-all solution in this piece, nor is it an admission of guilt. We intend to provide commentary on how streaming services fundamentally undermine our sources of entertainment, and to partially vindicate those who would otherwise feel guilty looking elsewhere to watch their favorite sports, movies and shows. One of the most common leisurely activities is now refactored into irrationally designed bundles of subscriptions, ad-saturated slop behind arbitrary paywalls and a loss of individual ownership over media.
We’d like to start here: have you ever had a professor save you the inconvenience of buying a textbook by posting their photocopied version of the text on Blackboard? Fair use exists in a grey area here, and we model this analogy for an important reason: the price you’d pay for that textbook is already exorbitantly high for the content you need from it. It seems permissible to distribute and read ‘pirated’ content in this case, not only because you are a student who pays tuition but also because it functions as an extension and manifestation of your own learning. In the context of streaming services, your purpose is now vested as an extension and manifestation of your own leisure, something that is unfortunately harder to access these days.
You might ask, “Well, what’s actually wrong with using certain streaming platforms like Netflix or Disney+ to consume media?” What was once a novel and practical idea — a monthly payment to streaming services of your choice for access to a wide range of diverse content — has become, or perhaps has always been, an authoritative, constrictive tool to access content. It seems that currently, in order for someone to be able to enjoy any form of media, they must buy into all the major streaming services. One could argue this is not true and sticking with one to two providers would do anyone just fine. Yes, maybe, but we feel that owning your media is slowly becoming an archaic idea. When was the last time you heard someone mention a DVR? When was the last time you opened a DVD case and slid it into a fresh DVD player? Streaming services have killed the spirit of finding and exploring diverse content through paywalls, irritating terms of service changes and blatant company-over-consumer decisions as it relates to your monthly payments.
You, subject to your own budget constraint, are feeling the pressure now more than ever. When ordinarily you could open Netflix and trust your family plan to suffice away from home, you’re now met with an “unrecognized WiFi network” notification, leaving you stranded with a subscription that no longer delivers the way it used to. KPMG’s Media Consumer Survey from 2023 found that more than a third of those surveyed have canceled a subscription directly due to price hikes, and on the other side, around 80% would be willing to stick with a streaming service for at least six more months in order to eventually get a lower price. The problem is, as long as platforms can pitch exclusivity and decentralize content (this movie here, that series there), you’re no longer only buying access; now, your secondary investment lies in anticipation. There is a first-order anticipation that the show you love to watch will remain on that platform (e.g., the unfortunate move of “The Office” from Netflix to Peacock failed to meet those expectations), and a second-order anticipation that maybe platforms will come around and meet you halfway with quality content reflective of the price you pay.
We don’t want to sound pedantic when we say that these services do not care about you; we know you know this. We further understand the advent of pirated content as being your leisure of last resort, and we see younger people flocking more to ‘shady’ websites from a desire to take control of what kind of content they consume. It sounds subversive and disruptive, because it is. But ultimately, so long as streaming giants routinely get away with raising subscription prices and adding tiers for privileges on their platform, this under-the-hood market mechanism will persist. It is laughable for streaming services to point fingers when they’re attached to the same hand that squeezes harder on the general public.
We won’t exactly say how you ought to spend your money (or if you should spend it at all) on sourcing entertainment in this way. Whether or not you share a password or take on risky redirects is a personal choice, and you need not feel guilty about however you deal with the specific conditions you’re under. Where you stand depends on where you sit. Accordingly, living in a time that fetishizes the crudely personal aspect of your finances, some bigger questions need to be raised if you put your money in the hands of streaming services. Where has the community gone that comes with a visit to the movie theater or sharing a DVD? If I buy into the idea of streaming services, is choice disguised as restriction or the other way around? And if I don’t get any marginal value by paying more next month, who really stands to gain?
