I'm not arguing that they weren't a criminal enterprise or that movie pirates are all closet consumerists waiting to be parted with their money. However, the ar

I'm not arguing that they weren't a criminal enterprise or that movie pirates are all closet consumerists waiting to be parted with their money. However, the article says that the vast majority of mega's money came from "premium subscriptions". The subscription part is interesting to me because it implies that a not insignificant number of people were paying regularly for this "service". They can't all have been dupes who never checked their credit card statements. As to your statement about them reselling this stuff for "pennies on the dollar", I do have a major problem with creators not being compensated for their work. However, I'm also not really sure what movies and TV shows are actually worth anymore. The pricing seems totally crazy between Netflix, physical media, and iTunes. It's anyone's guess what an episode of "Breaking Bad" actually is worth. The answer is increasingly, "it depends".