Advice for an industry wannabe (feeling guilty about piracy)

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As some of you may know, I take great interest in acting, screenwriting, and other aspects of the film industry. Naturally, I know that such people are highly opposed to piracy.

Yet, I constantly find myself on pirated streaming websites or using torrent software. I know I shouldn't, especially since I want to work in that field.

However, I have been asking relatives for Netflix or Amazon Prime for a great deal of time. I might be able to rope my uncle into it. My parents just refuse because they pay 300 USD per month for cable.

They don't get that I also watch things that are too new or old to be on cable. On the other side of things, I would feel bad about partaking in fandoms for things I haven't watched much or any of.

In addition, what happens when stuff gets taken off the streaming service or isn't there to begin with? Will I resort to piracy again? I don't want to.

The way it looks right now, I might be able to get my uncle to subscribe something for me (as a graduation present; and no, I can't really work right now) but, the question is: Should I a) lay off the pirated streams and downloads until I can subscribe to something but continue fandoms of things I haven't watched, or b) keep pirating to stay in the loop and be hypocritical against my dream career?

I just really wish they had something like Spotify that's for shows and movies...

Well i think this is a personal decision, (though obviously not legal to do).
I know in my house we decided not to download anything. We regularly use BBC I-player (but the licence for this in the UK is mandatory if you have a TV so might as well use i-player if u paid for it).
Recently we watch everything on amazon prime now. Its not that expensive, but I understand if you have no income then it will be harder.

I worked in the music and entertainment industry for years and I have no sympathy for weeping Billionaires.

When the recordable cassette tape came on the market in the 1960s, the record companies squealed that if people could record records onto tapes, their sales would plummet and their industry crippled. Didn't happen.

In the 1970s, FM radio stations took to tracking entire rock albums during the overnight hours. Record companies again went into hysterics, insisting that people would record their favorite albums off the radio and stop buying them. They didn't.

The logic is the same as saying "If you build libraries, people will stop buying books!"

During my three decades in the radio industry, I witnessed those same record companies sending case after case after case of free product, both vinyl records and Cds to radio stations week after week, to be given away free to listeners as prizes. I have personally handed out thousands of records and Compact Discs stamped with "Property of So-N-So Records - Not For Sale."

The video quality of most movies bootlegged online is awful, but it gives viewers a chance to see films they might never get around to otherwise. How is it destroying the film industry if you go out and purchase a Blu Ray because you saw the movie online for free and loved it? It's free advertising.

If they were really concerned about "piracy," they'd be suing the entire nation of China for flooding the market with bootleg DvDs, but you'll find people selling them by the truckload on Ebay every day.

I download stuff on a regular basis because:

There is very little TV in English

There are no movies shown in English

My particular interests are mainly old TV series from the 70's and 80's which have already been broadcast.

From my point of view it's therefore a victimless crime and my conscience is clear.

As for music, the last thing I downloaded was the latest album from Enigma. It was so bad that after skimming through on fast forward I deleted the file and left an adverse comment on the torrent site. Give me something decent and I might actually buy a CD.