Lately, content makers have been jacking up their prices, obfuscating their catalogues to drive growth and forcing ads onto their paying customers. All this is leading to users who want to see content that they usually would have been happy to pay for turning to piracy platforms.

For those too young to remember, the music industry eventually saved itself from pirated content with streaming platforms, making the paid product better and more accessible than the free one.

However, the movie industry has decided to get greedy. It appears to think that now that everyone is hooked on streaming services, users will have to do what they are told.

According to anecdotes, industry reports, and surveys, video piracy is rising. A study by Cordcutting found that a third of US residents have pirated shows or movies in the past year, and younger people are much more likely to do this than older viewers. The reasons given included subscriptions being too expensive, not wanting to see ads, and wanting to see newly released media without waiting.

Over the past year, streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime have cracked down on password sharing, increased prices, or introduced ad-subsidised tiers (although you still have to pay for the version with adverts). Even YouTube is raising prices and doesn’t pay for most of the media it streams.

Different streaming services made finding the content you wanted to watch difficult, making piracy sites better organised. Everything is available in one place, so you don't need to shuffle through your various apps to find what you want. You get everything the moment it is released, and these alternative streaming platforms are trying to create artificial scarcity by rotating shows out of the catalogue.

Piracy of video content is up anywhere from 12 to 36 per cent from its levels in 2020. Most piracy sites are free, offer a no-frills, alphabetical listing of available titles, and often include the newest, most recent programming in high definition. They are easy to use, and most content is available without commercial interruptions.

Things will probably get worsebefore the Hollywood studios realise they had their chance and messed it up. They must make their services cheaper, better, and less annoying. They will have to consolidate, offering everything through a few platforms instead of all trying to charge their monthly fee. In short -- stop seeing their customers as bank-o-mats.