Similar shenanigans are the reason I cancelled Disney+. I’ll pay a monthly fee for your entire back library. Otherwise, no thanks. Also, what’s the ethical issue with pirating content that is not for sale? I’d love to see a copyright overhaul that formalized abandonware and extended it to back catalogs of film and music. That way, people could legally torrent everything currently missing from these streaming platform…
> Also, what’s the ethical issue with pirating content that is not for sale?... (Offline-only distribution would count as “abandoned” in this regime.) Let's say I author a book and sell it as a paperback, but decide for whatever reason that I don't want to sell an e-book. Would you apply the same reasoning there? Is it ethical for you to torrent an unpaid for e-book copy because you've decided that's more convenient…
1 - You already forfeited you digital sales because you decided not to have an ebook release. If you make public that there are no plans for a digital release, and not the case that's just delayed compared to print.
2 - Digital books tend to be cheaper. Makes a huge difference for people that read 10 books a month.
3 - Print takes space, which many people might not have. I'm not going to buy a print book at a higher price, just to have to go straight to a used book store and sell it there, so I can torrent the ebook - which would be illegal anyway.
Same goes for TV shows and movies. Having dozens of blu-ray+dvd combos is not feasible.