The internet is as vast as our oceans. The possibilities with the internet are endless. That means it’s susceptible to websites slipping through the gaps, primarily ones that aren’t so honest and legitimate. These websites lead to digital piracy. They host shows, movies, and premium content.

Digital piracy can be found in every corner of the internet quite easily if you know where to look. Of course, these websites aren’t supposed to be available, but in order to take them down, the original owners would need to go through a lengthy legal process. Even when they do get shut down, even more will pop up in their place.

Logistically and legally, engaging in digital piracy is wrong. But most would consider it to be the morally right action. People are tired of subscribing to ten different streaming services. It’s essentially cable television once again. There are people who don’t have the privilege to pay for multiple services each month, just to watch a few shows on each subscription.

Similarly, the sites where you would find these shows, you might also find movies. Some movies are regional exclusives, while others only run in theaters for a limited time. These pirating sites for movies and shows also serve as archives, as some shows get pulled off streaming services. The shows and some episodes are vaulted to remain unseen to gather dust.

There are people who want to play old retro games. Some crave the nostalgia, they weren’t around when the games were available or some feel that the games from back then were better, also there aren’t any microtransactions as well (for more about microtransactions read this recent Thunderword article.)

These retro games are only available through trade because the number of physical copies are dwindling. Whether it’s through poor handling or lost in accidents. The original distributors do not distribute them anymore. Only a handful of retro games have been rereleased for the consoles of today.

To make these games more accessible, there are people who own the original physical copies, and they take the games and extract them using devices that copy the game and make it into a downloadable file that can be used on any device, like other consoles, mobile devices, and computers.

These downloadable files are called Read Only Memory (ROM) and are used with software called emulators. Emulators are the structure of the systems the games were originally hosted on. The availability of these things are on different levels even though they are used in conjunction with each other.

Emulators are publicly available because the code that the software uses was created completely from scratch. Whereas the ROMs need to have been owned physically first in order for it to be legal. Most people obtain ROMs by downloading them online, which is a big legal no, however the companies don’t seem to waste time suing each and every person who downloaded ROMs.

Online media are an interesting part of digital piracy. Everyone knows that textbooks get expensive. Most will try to find used ones, rent, or buy them new. The budget alternative is to find a PDF of the textbook online. This is hard for some books because there are so many different textbooks that are used for each course and subject.

For books like web novels, light novels, and comics from other countries (manga, manhua, manhwa) they aren’t in English, people online will translate these books and upload them on their respective websites.

While the translators are redistributing the books for free, they are giving these books exposure to people who wouldn’t have known about them or wouldn’t be interested in reading a book in a language they can’t understand.

Now along the same vein, we have adblock and VPNs. Adblocks are very convenient and give you videos and websites without ads. Some websites are inaccessible without it because of all the layers of pop-ups. VPNs are a tool that allow people to consume media that is region locked on official apps. They also protect your information, especially when using these pirating sites.

There are legitimate reasons to engage in digital piracy and other reasons that are less amicable. The prices of shows and movies lead people to look for cheaper alternatives. Retro games aren’t being distributed anymore, so people have created different avenues. And books from other countries can gain exposure.

Digital piracy has its ups and downs, so hold onto the ship!