What’s the way forward? For creators and distributors: make access simple, affordable, and timely. Global releases, flexible pricing, better subtitling/localization, and user-friendly platforms reduce piracy’s appeal. For audiences: weigh convenience against consequence. Enjoying a film means supporting a whole chain of people who made it possible. For policymakers and platforms: targeted enforcement, combined with consumer-friendly legal alternatives, will chip away at piracy’s economic underpinning without criminalising ordinary viewers.