The year just started, and piracy is still the only notable subject on the lips of content publishers and software developers.
We discuss piracy all the time, and nothing has changed. After years of successfully reversing the trend and convincing the public to access visual and audio content through legal means, content creators are losing the fight once again. Piracy is on the rise. 2026 could be the worst year yet.
The USA will lose tens of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs as a result. The number of people visiting pirate websites grew by 12 per cent in 2025. The figures in 2026 will be even more staggering. But again, that is nothing new.
So why are we talking about piracy in 2026? Because content publishers are directly responsible for this trend. Their actions drove the rise in piracy last year, and they are seemingly determined to continue along that same path while simultaneously complaining about the very problem they keep fueling.
To be fair, piracy has also become more efficient. Gone are the days of ugly portals with poorly designed layouts. Modern pirate sites are beautiful platforms boasting the same functionality as any streamer you know.
You can open formal accounts and create customized profiles with avatars. The websites will track your activity and recommend alternative movies and shows based on your viewing history.
You can even save shows to a playlist in your account to watch later or download. Keep in mind that these websites are entirely free. They have given the public plenty of reasons to reject legal streamers.
However, the pirates cannot take all the blame. Content publishers have become frustratingly greedy, introducing policies that increase their profits while harming the consumer.
Think about all the software developers that pulled you into their embrace by rejecting costly monthly subscriptions in favour of a one-time purchase, only to invalidate those lifetime licenses in recent years, forcing you to join their monthly subscription models.
If you bought a perpetual license for TeamViewer, the company will discontinue support for those older versions of the software in a few weeks, leaving you no choice but to purchase the digital product anew.
Streaming services, which enticed consumers away from traditional cable Networks by offering monthly subscription fees as low as $5, have increased their prices by over 100 per cent.
Even more annoying is the number of streaming services. Most people cannot afford to subscribe to every streamer on the market, and yet, the content you want is scattered across multiple distribution channels.
Remember when you could watch every WWE show and Premium Live Event through the WWE Network and a handful of traditional cable channels? That changed a few months ago when WWE took its PLEs from Peacock to ESPN.
Are you going to buy an ESPN subscription to watch the Royal Rumble on January 31? Will you abandon Peacock or pay for them both? What about the CW, which is where WWE NXT is now hosted, or Netflix, which has the rights to both WWE: Raw and WWE: Smackdown? What about anime?
A Crunchyroll subscription is no longer enough, not if you want to watch Dororo (on Hulu), Call of the Night (on HiDive), or One-Punch Man (on Netflix). Many of the shows you enjoy are technically available on Netflix and Crunchyroll, but only if you have a VPN. Otherwise, they are region-locked.
However, like every other software developer, VPN providers keep changing their terms. You can’t trust them. I have not even mentioned the ridiculous prices video game developers keep charging for the half-finished titles they routinely release.
If content publishers and software developers continue to prioritize short-term gains at the expense of their customers, they will eventually crash and burn.
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