As someone that gets pretty much all of my media from peering... they didn't "Quash" anything. They (or someone) used to upload all kinds of fake files to try and disrupt the community a few years back. They even got clever and would intentionally fake seeders so it'd look very popular.
That's why the aggregate sites have a comments and up-vote section. There are usually dozens of versions of any particular movie and you can sort by vote. That effectively killed the attack. They don't really try this anymore because their fake will get down voted almost instantly. You can even preview what you're downloading in most clients.
To be honest, I think they should be happy with the system they have now. It's pretty hard to get something before it hits DVD in a quality that's worth watching. If you want to see what's new and hot, you need to go to the theater. Getting a DVD or better quality version of a film is difficult enough that I bet most people just buy it. Their real problem is their continued fight against modernizing with some sort of streaming service. For example, imagine if you had a "Pandora" television station... TV shows were sent to you, you upvoted/downvoted them, etc... I'd pay for that. Keeping track of thousands of files for my kids TV shows is a PITA.
You get all your media from "peering" wtf does that mean?
People fake upload shit all the time, if you paid attention to TPB before it went down, you'll get an uploader loading 20+ movies/tv/whatever that were all fake. It was pretty noticeable.
As for your getting a DVD or better is difficult. No it's not. For example, I had a conversation earlier today that went like this. "I download the 1080p of The Equalizer last night, 9gb" "how? That isn't out yet." "Ya, almost all movies get released to the scene about a month before you can get them in the store." "Oh really, how was the movie Lucy?"
In other words, almost all movies make it to the various torrents/usenet/whatever about a month before they get released, unless you get a DVD screener of it out first.
As for worth watching, that is how it's always been. Bunch of crud with the occasional beauty. Problem with taste is it's subjective, so what you might like, doens't mean your kids or even I will like. Comment section on like torrents sites can help, but honestly, either check it reviews once it gets released, or take a chance. I've discovered a lot of great movies by taking chances, I've also stopped watching crappy movies because I don't feel like since I paid for it, I have to watch it.
You don't want to keep track of a thousand shows for your kids? Shouldn't of had kids. Not only do you need to keep track of what they watch, you need to keep track of what they do on the internet, who they hang out with, and other things that are annoying and boring and not going to make your kids happy. It's called parenting, get used to it.
