This article elucidates the results of analysis into the impact of media piracy on major Russian streaming services. The authors turn to scholarly investigations, Russian anti-piracy legislation and theoretical works and opinions of representatives of the music and video streaming service industry. The novelty of the study consists in the identification of modern piracy practices and features of streaming services operation in the context of a global pandemic. The authors supplement existing research with new stages in the development of media piracy and conclude that the level of media piracy in the world has increased during the pandemic. Some possible ways to combat media piracy in the new reality are suggested in the article. In particular, the development of alternative marketing instruments and support of self-regulation in the fight against media piracy as a substitution of rigid legal regulation, which is not always effective.