In today's world of subscriptions!

[The Sceptical Chymist]

I feel like the government are the ones supposed to fight these things. I mean, I do not truly know how it works, but I understand that the government are supposed to be the ones who make the environment better for people to do business. That is why people pay huge taxes, and the more business and money you make, the more taxes you pay. But since the government are not the one losing the money, they don't pay attention to it.

Well in the US I believe when situations like piracy happen and they affect corporations, it's up to the 'victims' to take legal action against the people pirating stuff.  If the music/movie/whatever industries never paid attention, the government wouldn't take any action.

At least that's my non-lawyer take on things.  I can't stand lawyers, by the way.

[Alpha Marine]

Well in the US I believe when situations like piracy happen and they affect corporations, it's up to the 'victims' to take legal action against the people pirating stuff.  If the music/movie/whatever industries never paid attention, the government wouldn't take any action.

Yeah, this is true, but you can only take legal actions against people who have been caught. If I create a website where people can download movies illegally, nobody knows who I am, so how can I be prosecuted? The corporation can't even do anything about the website on its own unless it goes to the authorities, and the site can be taken down. When that happens, the owner or creator of the website will just create another one, and the price continues.
It's only the government that has the authority, jurisdiction and resources to fight it. A movie industry in the US cannot act against a piracy organisation in Asia, Europe or Africa.

[goro_chief]

The first episode of the newest season of Black Mirror, a sci-fi series that often present concepts of human nature incorporated with technology in a satirical manner, is about a woman who got into an accident and had a brain injury. They were then offered a solution to keep her alive and functioning with a technology they have to subscribe to. The catch? There are higher tiers of subscriptions. Those in lower tiers have ads and have limited features. I really recommend this series particularly this episode.

But it got me thinking of subscriptions in general. These days everything has to be subscribed to. Television, music, software, storage, gaming, and others. My question is, are these subscriptions actually worth it? Are you actually getting your money's worth?

I am here to tell you that companies are actually getting more from you when you subscribe to their services. Why? First of all, for some reasons we humans tend to subscribe to something and then forget about it immediately. How many subscriptions have you forgotten to cancel?

Second, when you are subscribed to something in a certain amount of time you might not really use it as much as you thought you would. You might be too comfortable that the service is just there and easily accessible therefore not really making the most out of it. Like in a gym membership where you pay for the whole month but you only go for a few times.

Third, subscriptions are usually in bundles. There is no real transparency and you are not really getting a real breakdown of the costs. But we pay anyway. Are they actually worth it or we just do not have a choice anymore in a world where everything has to be subscribed to?

You're right to be skeptical, OP. The whole "subscription economy" is designed to trap you in recurring payments. It's the opposite of financial sovereignty, which is what drew many of us to crypto. I cancel stuff immediately after signing up for trials and use calendar reminders. For software, I actively look for open-source alternatives. They're often just as good and you pay with contributions (or not at all) instead of a monthly fee. Don't feel like you have no choice – there are usually options if you dig a bit.