People have been pirating movies, music, and whatever else since the 90s (and that's just as far back as I can remember). It kind of surprises me that piracy has taken a huge chunk of profit out of the music business and yet that industry never really cracked down on piracy in earnest. There was a time when people were getting sued, but that didn't last for long. That tells me that pretty much nobody cares if stuff gets pirated, including the government.
What I hate, absolutely hate, is that this subscription model has been adopted by so many industries because it's such a money-maker. I've heard about having to subscribe to having your seats heated in the car that you bought....and damned if that isn't taking things way too far IMO.
It's kind of surprising how the entities who fight against copyright and piracy e.g. SOPA, PIPA and other organizations in other countries are cherry picking. Even though criminals can create bunch new accounts, but as long as there are many employees who shutdown every account that broke the copyright, it's possible.
Nowadays, I only see the original creator sued other entity or big content creator who use their arts. So, these organizations are only waiting the report from original creators, instead of catching by their own.
I think subscription model is fine as long as they also give us an option to purchase the product permanently, unfortunately many of them only sell subscription.