They had been waiting months for a decent fan-subtitled version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban . The official Italian dub wouldn’t be out for another three weeks. They couldn’t wait.

They pressed play.

A small, cramped apartment in Rome. It’s December 2005. DVDs exist, but they are expensive. High-speed internet is a myth, and streaming means a buffering, pixelated video loaded through a shady website full of pop-ups for webcams and ringtones.