What Happens When China Makes a Popular Homegrown Movie Disappear?

There’s currently a spirited debate occurring on social media in the U.S. about the ethics of pirating media that can’t be seen anywhere else. The streaming giants were welcomed with open arms a decade ago, allowing people to watch large libraries of movies and TV on-demand for a small monthly subscription. But the subscription prices have grown considerably and the offerings have been scattered to services too numerous to count. To make matters worse, some of the biggest players have started deleting streaming-native shows and offering no alternative to watch them.

Previously, physical media like DVDs offered a way to watch a movie or TV show that wasn’t available on streaming. But when a show debuts on streaming and that streamer decides to drop it, the media is completely gone, save for the copies you can find on pirate websites. And, frankly, people of the 21st century aren’t really used to the idea that big companies have total control over when to watch a given show or movie. Back in the mid-20th century it might be normal to see something on TV and then never see it again until you could catch it during a rerun. But that business model is completely unnecessary in the internet era.

Is it ethical to watch a movie like Return to Dust for free on YouTube if the Chinese government decides it should be banned from public display? You’ll have to make up your own mind on that—we’re not here to tell you how to live your life. But rest assured that the pirates will likely be the only ones with many TV shows and movies from our era a full century from now.

It’s estimated that about half of movies made before 1950 and roughly 90% of movies made before 1929 are lost forever thanks to movies studios failing to give a shit about preservation. And given the way we’ve seen huge media companies treating TV shows that came out just a few years ago, we’re not going to hold our breath that preserving access is really top of mind.