Yeah, history has repeatedly proven that piracy is largely a convenience/cost calculation. Each individual person will have a different way that they measure convenience or cost, but that’s ultimately what it boils down to. And piracy’s biggest benefit is that the financial side of the “cost” equation is low.

Maybe the cost has other factors that people consider, like time spent searching for decent sources, malware risk, potential legal issues, moral objections, etc… All of that gets lumped into the cost side of the equation, and weighted based on the individual’s unique situation. For someone like a 12 year old kid with no financial freedom, the “price” side of the cost calculation will be weighted very heavily.

Meanwhile, the convenience has its own factors too. Download speed, ease of access, quality of the media being consumed, etc… All of these factors get weighted and lumped into the “convenience” side of the equation.

It ultimately just boils down to “does the convenience outweigh the cost?” And if piracy becomes less convenient/more costly, (or legit sources become more convenient/less costly) then people will reconsider their decision.