Alternatives to Paid Subscription Sites

Continuing on my "Fuck Peacock" theme, here are some alternatives to paywalled sites that are free & superior if you're willing to do the work & learn how to navigate their search engines & slightly different formats.  Use at your own discretion.  

First up:  Internet Archive/Wayback Machine.  Not exactly a secret but way underutilized.  This invaluable resource contains countless hours of films, books, paper files & other pieces of internet history gathered by the site's roaming webcrawler launched way back (get it?) in 1996.  They get tons of DMCA takedown requests daily but still have more indispensable material than any other single online source.  Some of my favorite posters are Ratterfat McWhiskers (PBS archive) & Windsinger (MTV/VHS archive).  Instead of paying for an overpriced subscription to some greedy company like HBO Max, consider donating to these & other users for all the work they do uploading & converting their old VHS & Betamax(!) videos to the site.  

The second is Z-Library, a bit more grey-area in terms of legality but highly useful for homebound bookworms without a lot of dough to spare.  This site allows you to download virtually any book or academic research publication imaginable for free.  Yeah, I know.  I feel torn about it myself as a writer.  But as long as it's there you might as well make use of it.  It's essentially a library without a librarian; a "shadow library" if you will.  The files come in many formats including epub, PDF, TXT and Kindle to name a few.  You can also contribute to the massive collection of online books by uploading your own to the site.  

 

The 3rd is ev01.to, a streaming movie & television site that posts all the latest streaming content (plus many old hard-to-find classics).  I don't know how well it works on phones but with a laptop + Adblock Plus, it does just dandy... or so I've heard.  It's a great place to find all the latest documentaries, hot shows & paywalled content without having to subscribe to 50 different channels like Hulu & Disney+.  (Some folks claim that sites like these are running Bitcoin mining ops on their users, but this can easily be prevented by installing an app or extension like "No Mining" or "No Coin" on your device).  You might want to use a VPN (virtual private network) to view this site if you're concerned about your ISP spying on you since sites like this are technically piracy.  

Two Views

Piracy, or virtual friends sharing files? 🤔

You can look at these sites in one of two ways:  One, as immoral shortcuts to obtaining the media you want without paying for it... cold, hard thievery.  Or two, as representations of what the internet was supposed to be in the beginning:  an information superhighway in which people from around the globe can share their media in a peer-to-peer format without greedy middleman & corporations taking a cut.  

Your friends have loaned you books before, right?  You get together & watch movies on shared Netflix accounts, yes?  Then what's the difference doing it with friends across the globe?  This was the argument that users of Napster, Limewire & other peer-to-peer music sharing sites made way back in the day before streaming giants like Spotify & iHeart took over & began screwing musicians while providing an inferior & incomplete service to paying customers.  Back when you could download and actually OWN the music for free.  Before bands like Metallica & the RIAA threw a hissy fit & forced Napster into Chapter 11 despite already being multi-millionaires themselves.  

Nobody's stopping you from contributing financially to your favorite artists in other ways or at other times even if you use these services.  The argument that you're "stealing from them" is dishonest.  Technology evolves & artists must evolve with it or be left behind.  What's not acceptable is for corporate giants like Viacom & Sony Music to rip off both the artist AND the consumer while playing us against each other with these lies.  Musicians make the majority of their money touring & performing live nowadays because these streaming sites are so unprofitable anyway.  Amazon, with their slave-driving working conditions, has killed the brick-and-mortar bookstore business single-handedly yet has convinced us that obtaining books outside the Kindle format is "stealing".  I could go on but will stop.  

TL;DR - Do what feels right to you & let others do the same.  

Everything written here is for informational purposes only.  I don't condone nor have I ever used any illegal streaming/downloading sites myself, nor am I affiliated with the owners of said sites.  Long live the Wild West internet of the '90s.