For anyone looking to dip their toes in the seven seas
Soulseek is a peer to peer media sharing network akin to limewire
yt-dlp i a command line Youtube video/audio downloader that does hq
https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp
KissAnime for streaming anime: https://kissanime.com.ru/
Similar sites that let you stream movies/shows/manga are aggregated on sites like TheBestCouchPotatoList:
You can find most free streaming sites through google/duckduckgo searches or pirating communities like the r/Piracy sub on reddit
Anything else can be found on torrent sites, which are usually aggregated on sites like TheProxyBay or r/piracy
Possibly unpopular take, besides google corporate greed, YT hosts more stuff then pirating sites, unpopular things are less likely to be pirated, so pirate repos are somewhat curated. Less content, and no leeching executives means less costs means less ads needed.
Actually, I mostly pirate things I can’t find to stream with a reasonably-priced subscription, or without ads, and unless we’re talking 15-plus-year-old shows or “animes” I’ve heard about that turn out to be Hentai, I generally find what I’m looking for, with seeds.
Hell, I’m sure if I could be bothered to find a Hentai-centric pirate site, or joined a private tracker, I wouldn’t have a problem finding anything for free.