It’s disappointing that copyright infringement could cause these people to spend time in prison, but the predatory practices of the companies they where competing with are punished with no more then fines. A “cost of doing business” for the corporate aristocrats. This is the threat the upper class uses on the rest of us, and all too often do not suffer themselves.
“Rules for thee, but not for me” - Corporations
That was kind of my thought too. These people were offering a subscription based service that people were paying for. This shows pretty conclusively that people are willing to pay for content when it is conveniently packaged. When it’s broken apart and fragmented, piracy and alternative consumption method become more appealing.
Could you imagine if the music industry operated in the same way? Instead of choosing whether to use Spotify, Apple Music, etc, you needed to have both just to consume a relatively small collection of popular music? That would be madness—and it’s madness for film and television content as well.