I am all for purchasing or licensing content that I enjoy. 100%. But that assumes the content owner is willing to take my money. I have no sympathy for people who refuse to let me give them my money who then turn around and cry "noooooooo, piracy is ruining us!!!".
I don't know how the music industry figured it out. They have like six different licensing agencies, but somehow Spotify has all the music I want in one place.
Meanwhile on video side, every single content creator wants their own distribution channel.
Yes let me buy a DRM free file download I can use on any of my devices for a reasonable price and I'll give you my money.. Unfortunately only piracy offers that currently. (Except books and games, which I do pay for).
This is even worse with audio books. Book was written decades ago, read twenty years ago, and I'm supposed to give them $15-50 to listen to it? Get the fuck out of here.
I mean, there's a lot of work that goes into recording and editing the audio for an entire book. As well as desire for good talent to do the reading and acting is an important part of audio books as well.
(said by someone who has never purchased an audiobook outside of humble bundle and sailed the high seas for the others)
This is actually one thing your local library is great about. A lot of them use a service called Libby. It's free, works for the most part, automatically returns, and your ISP won't "strike" you for slipping up lol