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Despite Netflix and Amazon Prime, Most of the World Watches Pirated Content (techinasia.com)
An anonymous reader shares a TechInAsia report: More than half of the people surveyed across the world still watch pirated movies and TV shows, a new survey shows. The study, conducted by digital security firm Irdeto, asked more than 25,000 adults across 30 countries about video watching trends. Here's what it found: 52 percent of those surveyed said they watch pirated videos. 48 said they would stop, or watch less illegal content after they were told about the damaging effects of piracy on the media industry. While many recognize that producing or sharing pirated video is illegal (70 percent), far fewer people are aware that streaming or downloading is also against the law (59 percent).
Dude. Amazon prime's streaming is garbage. It's all bait n switch. You're paying 100 bucks a year and you only get a handful of episodes per show/season. After that they expect you to pay per episode. No thanks.
It used to be that art was more or less done because either the artist was driven or a patron was willing to fund it.
Right now, art in various forms draws a lot of money... but it isn't piracy that will kill Hollywood, it's machinima. Once an affordable computer can replicate the real world (plus special effects)realistically, the current system will fail completely.
Then our problem will be wading through all the polished turds produced by people who only think they're talented while we're trying to find an actual precious stone.
Pirated material can be played with your player of choice, on your device of choice.
It can be played at 1.5x speed. The audio can be amplified, or filtered, and the channels can be mixed differently.
The video can be transcoded to meet the needs of a mobile device.
The content can be consumed off-grid.
There is just so much convenience when these motherfuckers get out the goddamn way!!!1111
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones
Indeed, it took an entire ship, 40 mates, plenty of gunpowder (and some for your beard) to make this content available. Miraculously, not one man died in this heroic act of piracy.
Prepare to be boarded, lilly-livered DRM-lubbers!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Not to speak for everyone, but some content just is not available. Easiest example that comes to mind: Little Witch Academia is airing in Japan. Netflix has streaming rights, so it should be available for me to watch on Netflix, right? Wrong, because Netflix doesn't show things as they air, but they will be putting the whole thing up once it's over in a few months. So if I want to watch this show as it airs (because watching shows as they air and discussing it with other nerds online is way more fun than binging on an archive), I have no legal option to do so.
But...
Are you, movie industry, going to take it? Are you man enough to take it? If you build it they will come. Because right now the movie industry's MO seems to be "the more buzz it generates, the more barriers we create to viewing it"
There's nothing on Amazon Prime
And despite the summary, it isn't necessarily illegal to pirate in certain countries. Heck, the former USTR maintains a special list of countries you should visit if you wanted to do so.
we discovered that Netflix offering was a subset of the USA offering in Canada. I actually tried to subscribe to the HBO web service in Canada and discovered that I could not get "Game of Thrones" without paying an extortion fee to Bell Canada who has exclusive rights to distribute HBO content which adds an extra $60/month by forcing people to go cable or satellite services.So..I wait for DVD's from the library.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
This is what happens when you sell a product with $0 distribution cost for > $0 while the people making it are making millions.
Just imagine for a second that people were 3D printing their own furniture for nothing but the cost of the plastic, and IKEA started bitching about people not buying their stuff.
It would be absolutely ridiculous, and yet, somehow the media companies have normalized this situation.
One of the issues is still the same old story: I want to view something, but the owner refuses to give it to me the way I want.
Hulu and similar services from individual networks are a good example. Their model is the same as broadcast TV: you get content for "free" for agreeing to watch ads. I have no problem with this arrangement, but for whatever reason they think it benefits them to refuse to provide all their content under that agreement. For example, they only provide the most recent 3-4 episodes of a show, so if I am a new viewer of that show -- or I have not watched for a few weeks -- I have no way to view it (often at any price). So, I don't watch it (and some people pirate it instead).
And, of course, there is also the region restriction BS that Netflix, et al. still have to deal with. Literally saying to customers "no, I won't sell you this to stream because you live in the wrong country!".
All the services like Netflix and Amazon prime have their exclusive content. They are like different channels on cable TV.
Netflix long ago stopped being a content store and became a content creator.
it doesn't make any sense to say despite Neflix because Netflix sells their own content, not make others content easily available.
People wouldn't pirate as much if they weren't getting assraped to watch TV shows, especially when it's something that was broadcast over-the-air in the first place. I'll 'pirate' an episode my DVR somehow missed all I want, and fuck the police, the networks, and all you wankers who whine and cry about it.
Netflix might have a lot of content is a few countries, but has little content in most countries. The choice ends up being either not to watch or to pirate. There's no real damage to the industry in such cases.
The content companies only have themselves to blame, mostly at least. When there is no way to catch up on missed episodes the only choice is pirated or stop watching altogether. Which would they prefer? Beyond that, cable isn't cheap. We pay $100 a month for something that we used to get for free over the air. And most of the world is dirt poor, so if they can't get content for cheap... I'm not exactly poor but I'd never ordinarily pay $1.99 just to watch one episode of one show.
:T:R:A:N:S:
Most of the world doesn't have access to either of those.
I used to pay for Netflix until I got rolled up in their massive crack down on VPNs and blocked my house, which had been using the same static IP for years.
Pirates make a better product and listen to their customers. Netflix used to do that, but now that they've acquired their "market share" they care not for the pseudo-customers paying monthly subscription fees because the lions share of their money and valuation comes from selling their subscriber's view habits. Nothing like paying for the privilege of being a companies product.
I don't know about Amazon, but Netflix has very different content (apart from the exclusives/original things of course). As a result the quality of programming of Netflix is very variable
This study is so obviously flawed in methodology it's laughable. Clearly this is just a bunch of propaganda. First, if you're surveying people around the world you also need to determine what licensed streaming services the person has access to as not all (or even any) services are available in all countries. Second, you need to consider the differences in the catalogs of licensed services from country to country. Because of antiquated business practices and agreements the catalog of Netflix (for example) varies greatly from place to place. In most places it's much worse than the US, which isn't even that great. Third, the study makes the assumption that simply viewing pirated content is in fact illegal (and they report about this with a leading statement, Did not know that simply watching....). While this may be true in some regions globally there is certainly some disagreement about whether only distribution is unlawful or whether consumption is also unlawful. This really smells like media industry propaganda to me.
Get the Amazon cash rewards Visa. Use it for everything but pay off the balance monthly to avoid fees. That 1% to 3% cash back more than pays off the $100 prime membership. All in all I get about $600 per year using cash back cards and no service fees.
Easy, I am in Québec and want to watch Walking Dead in French? Nope, AMC seems to have refused to sale the rights to French Canadian TV, so I wait for it to be showned in France/Belgium/whatever and torrent it.
Best comedy serie ever? Married With Children of course, cannot find it in French in Canada, even in DVDs, so torrent it goes.
Repeat for a lot of things dubbed in French and unavailable by any legal meaning in Canada.
that's the signal given to the content-creators. The question is when they'll pick it up and simply accept that a smaller number of people will pay for a larger number of viewers, rather than people "stealing" their content.
"48 (percent) said they would stop, or watch less illegal content after they were told about the damaging effects of piracy on the media industry."
As movies continue to smash box office earnings records, and leading movie stars continue to justify obscene paychecks, I'd love to know how the MPAA is going to convey those "damaging" effects.
Sure as shit doesn't seem like they're hurting, especially in the face of what appears to be rampant piracy.
I'll tell you, it's DMCA assclowns and the fact that no one asked me or anyone else if they wanted to pay 3-5x more for netflix to get EXACTLY the content I want and none of the crap I don't. So now, I find myself paying for the 2 past years of netflix while spending MORE TIME flipping through their garbage content instead of watching actual content. Then they mete out an occasional kimmy schmidt where I binge-watch and then it's back to being absolutely tired of NAZI content, Social justice garb, stupid documentaries of obscure things that ought not have ever been made, low quality child content, b lister anime, and a proliferation of WAR/POLICE/INTELLIGENCE lionizing state sponsored propaganda content.
Netflix basically has become CABLE now, as the dominators have infiltrated their way into Netflix (and Amazon), giving us pernicious propaganda like "White Helmets" which--if you have any clue whatseover about what's actually happening and how WH relates to the film "The Whistleblower" with Rachel Weisz, then you'll know it's a total fraud and that it's evil state propaganda. Lionizing a group that's selling war orphans as child brides to Saudi 20 somethings to be raped.
So yes, we pirate stuff. It's their fault. F them. We'll continue until you get a new model where we can pay only what we use, and that it's fair and not extortionary or abusive, or tries to continue to sneak advertising into it, either in the content itself (product placement), subliminally (billboards in content), or by some other abusive method.
We're not cheapskates. We told HBO for example we wanted to pay for each episode of game of thrones; they didn't listen until this year; that's 5+ yrs they've missed out on our money.
Who's fault is that??
The content just isn't there! Same for Netflix. It only has half of what anyone wants to see.
So, people go where the content is. That's all.
I have sincerely tried to be legal. I bought HDHomeruns and cable cards so I could consume media in my linux environment legally on a DVR that has capability that is important to me and storage that lets me keep it as long as I want. But the cable co's are now encrypting to make cable on all but a few channels making it impossible for me to view on the platform of my choice. They are using encryption as a way to force you into a rental scenario. As for online streaming, I don't have fast enough internet to stream. I wouldn't even if I could. I will download on linux and view using the player of my choice or I'll work around the artificial crippling.
Digital is, by definition, imperfect. Analog is the way to go.
I'm pretty sure piracy is much lower now, without historical data of the same questions those numbers are just plan sh**t, and this is just s**ty lobby.
... now I have a lot more free time and the studios still aren't getting any more money from me.
Services like Netflix show past seasons (unless it is something the Netflix directly produced). Most people want to want the current on-going season.
"damaging effects of piracy on the media industry"
1. I believe children are damaged by the media industry.
2. Therefore the media industry needs to go away.
3. Piracy has a damaging effect on the media industry.
4. I pirate media content because it is my moral obligation to damage the media industry - for the children.
Well, that should totally hold up in court.
you don't have much choice other than piracy... other than importing which cost 10x what the product is actually worth. And illegal in some cases.
but they didn't provide ANY indication of the exact questions asked, how they chose potential respondents, how they rejected potential respondents, how many results they threw away and under what criteria - you know, any of the important stuff that would allow the reader to actually evaluate whether or not the conclusions drawn have even a chance of reflecting the real state of affairs. The 'article' is a blatant, crude, substanceless, hit-and-run propaganda piece, and any thinking person should either take its conclusions with a whole cupful of salt, or dismiss them out of hand.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
If you give people a reasonable alternative to piracy I'd like to believe they would take it. Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon between them scratch my TV needs, although, with further fragmentation of the streaming market, I'm seriously considering reviewing the situation. I can't pay for EVERY channel that fragments off and wants its own subscriber base.
When it comes to sport- I have to stream from grey-area sources. I'm sorry, I'm not paying for cable just to have sports- nor am I paying $60 a year just to watch Premier League games. Come out with a reasonable price alternative and I'll pay. Charge me $15 to watch online- and I will pay for your service- ask ridiculous amounts and I won't.
I'd really like Netflix to show sports but they're always claiming consumers don't want to be able to watch sports and turn away when consumers scream back "YES WE DO". I don't even care if there is a several hour delay of a live event. I can resist checking for updates on my phone that long.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
I see that mainstream media has gone completely bankrupt in the last decade as "piracy" has increased.
I miss watching films and TV and now that piracy has taken over there just is no new TV, music or movies anymore. Same with books, since ebook piracy became a thing NO ONE has written, published or bought a book in years.
All media is now completely dead.
Thanks pirates!
Tried Netflix and Prime. You expect to get anything and everything. But instead you get one decent show, a load of old movies you've already seen.
Suddenly the most important thing is to remember to terminate subscription.
Let me put it this way. I can only watch so much content. There's more content around than I'll ever watch. If I'll be allowed to choose out of everything then I'll come back.
I think I might speak for one or two more.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
Aside from not having "good" content on Netflix/Amazon/iTunes etc (aka be an appealing product) --- watching Pirated content fills the "Now" and "Cheap"
I know multiple people who watch pirated content -- and Own a copy too -- only because the mechanism to watch said content is easier via the pirate tools. One person wants to watch on his phone when traveling (or some mobile device for the kids in the backseat) - but the copy he purchased on iTunes/Amazon can't be loaded onto said device. But the device will play other formats that can be downloaded off the web.
And then there are those who are too cheap to pay $10 a month for the streaming services (or sum of iTunes purchases / 12 months). Free is always a good price - plus you can watch movies that aren't available on the streaming services.
Where does it say that downloading pirated content is illegal?
Is this a contributory infringement theory?
I live in the unitrd states. Curious where the law is that suggests downloading without redistributing is illegal. I want a citation to US code.
That's me in the spotlight stealing your content.
I pay a monthly fee for netflix Canada. I do not use proxies or a VPN to bypass the restrictions. I am ok for the most part with their content.
I still use kodi as my PRIMARY source of media as there's no restrictions and I can find playlists for addons like 1channel that simply are not an option on netflix. And I'm able to get tv shows the night they air or the morning after, not 6 months later
But the #1 reason I'm still pirating while also paying for netflix?
"Are you still watching?" That's fucking annoying as fuck, some shows it's like once a season, others it's every 3 episodes. Fuck off netflix I want to blast through an entire season while I'm working around the house or something, my pirate box isn't so needy as to constantly ask "are you there? do you still love me?"
Seriously. There's more content than ever. We could use a culling mechanism, IMO, but piracy doesn't seem to be it.
Now let's talk about the damaging effects of making sharing a crime.
I live in Finland and have tested all streaming services available here. Checked the scifi movies section on all of them and results were poor: HBO Nordic 5 movies, Viasat 13 movies and CMore 28. Netflix had similar selection. And most of the movies were old, some so old that they were shown on TV. Selection on TV series was slightly better, but still I had watched all interesting shows during the first free month all these services offered. And I only watched 1-2 hours every now and then.
- Raynet --> .
Most people around the world are poor, and they probably can't afford legitimate access to US video programming. Hollywood should be happy that foreigners are pirating their movies. It helps keep down competition from places like Bollywood. America benefits from exporting its culture abroad.
I'm a subscriber (just because it's cheap, and sometimes use on the tablet) and illegally download even Netflix content. It's great to have always 1080p from the go with no delays.
The day my ISP stop the traffic shaping I may change.
...but I'm going to say it again: Convenience, convenience, convenience. The market always corrects when you try to impose artificial supply constraints, especially when demand is high.
You'd think people would have learned from watching the music industry go through it's "head in the sand" phase.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
If last year I watched a hundred pirated videos, and this year I watched two, this survey would say I still watch pirated video.
And the list of people who think streaming pirate content isn't illegal would seem to include the UK trading standards - https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/03/06/1958209/streaming-pirate-content-isnt-illegal-uk-trading-standards-says
This survey is a streaming pile.
Looks like maybe providers need to make the content available to those countries who are watching that "pirated" content.
It really seems to me that this is more about content not being available, so people find ways to get it. While Netflix/Amazon may be available in some of those countries, do they get the full list of shows/movies, or just a pittance? I know it is likely due to copyright law restrictions, but that should serve as a wake up call that those restrictions are not helping the copyright holders.
They sure threw the word pirate around a lot in the article. It would be interesting to see a definition of what they call "pirated".
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
...the same day they implemented geoblocking and I could no longer stream from my US based VPS. I had a choice: either engage in a game of cat and mouse or return to the convenient method that I knew just works. Netflix doesn't miss me, even if their annoying emails suggest otherwise.
Torrents of Netflix shows are available within literally minutes of their release, hours at most. It's a similar story for Amazon Prime. However, where watching TV shows this way really shines is getting commercial free versions of network shows. While having to skip through commercials can be described as a first world problem, it's hard to go back to having to even acknowledge that commercials exist after you've not had to deal with them for a few years.
The bottom line for me is that ease and convenience wins out, and that the more you try to tell me how I can and can't do something, the more likely I am to tell you to piss off.
Despite Netflix and Amazon? They operate more and more the same way the rest of the industry operates, Netflix locks down content by region giving many regions only a tiny library and I am sure Amazon would do the same if they actually had a decent service to lock down. Those 2 have the abilities to lead the way and Netflix for a while even seemed to be trying but now they are just part of the problem.
I'm guessing thats really because most of the people of the world still don't live in first-world countries with significant disposable income and high-bandwidth internet.
If folks have to resort to pulling content from frowned upon channels, Big Media has only themselves to blame.
While Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and the like are cheap enough, the quality and lack of shows available to stream across them reflects their price. I cannot tell you how many times I've searched for a show I was interested in watching on Netflix, only to find out that it isn't available in the streaming catalog. I can't tell you how many times I've found a series I would like to watch, only to find out it's Season 3 and the first two seasons aren't there anymore :|
When the MPAA / RIAA pull their heads out of their ass and realize the following:
1) Make the content available across all platforms, not this exclusive bullshit we have now
2) Make it reasonably priced, WITHOUT ADS ( don't f*ck this up, you'll sink the whole damn ship )
3) Get rid of the GD geo-blocks. We don't need YOU telling us what YOU think WE should watch.
You'll likely find the number of folks who resort to the Yarr-Matey versions will drop significantly and instead of bitching about the " Pirate Problem ", you can instead focus on your real issue.
That being the creation of quality content that folks actually want to watch.
Actors and musicians don't need any more of my money. They have a lot more wealth than me, they aren't engineers, they don't contribute to any breakthroughs which would advance the species (usually quite the opposite) and ironically they continue to mouth off to anyone who'll listen about diversity. Well piracy is my way of helping with their diversity problems.
1. No advertising interruptions (during the middle of the content, before/after might be fine).
2. Intuitive user interface for both viewing and administration of content
3. Access groups for family members (kids can't access R-Rated content)
4. Media format of my choice including converters (for future compatibility)
5. Encode/Transcode quality of my choice
6. Availability away from home with secure login
7. No billing schedule that will remove access to content. Once yours it's yours for life.
8. Personalization of title ratings, favorites, and suggestions.
9. Integrated weather and RSS apps of my choice
10. Ability to group any content together (episodes or movie series)
11. Playlists that can be put on repeat (cue up 1000 movies to play in a row)
12. Coming Soon movie trailers can be played prior to any movie viewed as an option. Some people like this, some don't.
The movie and music industry needs something like Steam. Something they can all agree on as 1 platform. Studios are so greedy they all want their own individual platforms which is very inconvenient to users, that's why users are rejecting them. All they have to do is come together, agree on a platform, and make it work in the way described above and they'll have the platform consumers have been asking for, for the past decade or two. Media industry is so far behind the times. They need talented programmers and web developers more than their next big budget movie to make this happen.
The movie industry leaders made a collective decision to retain control over the distribution of their digital products. They saw what happened to the music industry as a loss of control. Your "excellent product" is precisely what they despise.
In the short term, there is absolutely no plan in place to rectify this. No video-content producer wants to be beholden to free-market impacts on price. They absolutely don't want to accept the terms of someone else's video streaming service. They abhor the thought of a netflix monopoly on streaming, and how little negotiation leverage it means they will have. They will not abide ANY of this.
So instead they will expend tremendous amounts of money in the completely vain attempt at enforcing technically-misguided laws that attempt to maintain control of digital distribution and consumption. They will create a lot of noise and pain, but will accomplish nothing else.
My wife regularly watches streamed movies from foreign websites. The reason is simple. She's Romanian and even though I'm a prime member she can't find anywhere to legally watch movies with Romanian subtitles.
This simply comes back to not offering any legal alternatives to watching pirated content.
It's not really about pirating...
It's really all about financing. This is an issue about who pays to have content made. In order for your favorite show on cable or TV to be made someone has to pony up the cash to make it. This is done by pre-selling the content to distributors who in turn get an exclusive license to distribute the show and package advertising or a paid platform around it. Pirating circumvents this financing model by stealing the exclusive rights away from the distributor who is in a roundabout way financing the development and production of the content.
It's actually kinda funny.... the more people pirate the less the distributors can afford to pay, so lower and lower quality content is produced.
Restricting access is part and parcel of getting a show made. If you want DRM free content and the ability to play it on any of your devices then a method to finance content directly needs to be implemented. People don't make TV shows for the love of it, producers make TV to get paid. Producers couldn't give a toss who's paying them as long as they make their money. So, if you want to cut out the middle man between you and your fav show then you should work on a platform that can actually crowdfund on an industrial scale production financing for shows you want to watch. Nothing is free.
I'm listening to a (pirated? paid for by ads I'm blocking?) Youtube stream of The Who's classic album Who's Next, which I also own on vinyl. It's just easier to listen to it this way when I'm at my computer. This is what we were promised more than 20 years ago when those TV ads about "The Information Superhighway" ran.
Not an endless money and content grab by a few big corporations.
when good services no flash and full repository are available and no region blocks pirating will go down. people do not want a bunch of sites to go too either thats what was greate about hulu back in the day there are other reasons its ok but not greate today. a drm html5 will be able to get content out far better with how people feel they need to protect their media.
I won't buy DRM shows at any price. I want to manage my shows in the player of my choice and I don't want to worry about losing access. I've been burned on this before when I bought a show to watch at the airport and lost access to it when I left the country. At 1.99 a pop I'd pay for a few worthwhile things, and 99 cents I'd be willing to buy a lot. But with DRM? Not a penny.
I'm struggling with how this is "despite" Netflix. These days I'm saying it's more because of Netflix. When Netflix started it was promising an alternative to the video rental model. Easy, online, full of popular content, right at your door. When they moved to streaming it was revolutionary, all the latest and greatest and a huge back catalogue giving the middle finger cable providers.
Now?
Now I struggle to see how Netflix is any different than owning cable. They mostly fill up their catalogue with their own self made content, content from others is sparse, content is not first to arrive on Netflix unless it's exclusive, and outside the USA let me just say the content is utter garbage. How garbage? Look for Australian TV shows in the USA, and then try and find the same shows on the Australian Netflix. Yes even the local content is harder to get locally on Netflix compared to the USA.
So when people say despite Netflix people all over the world are pirating, I would say they would first need to put a bit of effort in before qualifying for the word "despite".
Make your own streaming service for free.
At least In the EU its legal to stream pirated content.
http://www.digital-digest.com/...
I think a MUCH more interesting number would be what percentage of a person's media consumption is of pirated content vs. legally streamed content? Of course, that means they'd need to have performed this same quiz before the acceptance of Netflix streaming to compare it to.
I have to say, since signing up for Netflix in 2009, my pirated content has been dropping steadily year over year. Right now, it's probably down 75% from what it was in 2009. The 25% that remains are current run TV shows that Netflix got me hooked on, but left me with blue balls by being 3 seasons behind what's currently airing. And once I get that flexget routine going for a show, it becomes just as easy to watch it when it magically shows up in Plex as it is to use Netflix, since I have a Chromecast on every TV in the house.
48 out of the 25000 surveyed in TFA.
Here is why people choose pirated content:
"Every movie you've ever searched for" is unavailable to stream. This title is available on Netflix DVD.
-and-
You can stream this, but we have non-skippable commercials poorly cut in and if you pause or seek it the episode will restart. Also, we use dumb buffering, so that every commercial causes the buffer to flush and you'll end up watching most of the video at 180p, not 1080p, quality.
I have amazon prime for shipping. I have relatives that live all over the US and it's very handy, as well as one day shipping when i need something (it's available in my area). the problem with Netflix remains content owners. Studios, lawyers and ISP's are trying to rob the last dollar from the American consumer (with the blessing Lord Trump) all the while the really good and NEW content is available for streaming in Foreign countries. There's zero reason foreign subscribers should have better content for the same service other than greed. And it's only going to get worse, much worse if the current Administration has they're way.
If the media industry can enforce and sell per-country monopolies for its catalog, it's not suffering noticeable or significant damage. BTW, those monopolies, which are usually realized as bundled subscriptions (eg. Foxtel, NetFlix) delivering 90% drek, become cheaper to enforce every decade because the media industry socializes more of the cost to the domestic government.
Duh? Pirates use standards, so their stuff works. Netflix and Amazon still require special software/devices. As long as Netflix and Amazon go to all that extra trouble to tell would-be customers to go fuck themselves, it shouldn't be a surprise that so many people opt for easier/less-hassley and more reliable methods.
still watch pirated movies and TV shows
Like Pirates of The Caribbean or Pirates of Silicon Valley? Or are you just repeating MPAA/RIAA argument framing language?
I believe that most people have found that pirated content is high quality and no ads, plus all those RSS feeds have been set up to automatically download shows a long time ago, well before Amazon and Netflix came to the party.
So why switch from something high quality and ad free?
Oh wait it's missing one word
Netflix + Amazon (Western content) vs Pirated Content in the World
Netflix + Amazon (Western content) Pirated Content in the World
It doesn't take much to point out Netflix & Amazon are still pretty limited in content across the world. Go travel for a vacation to some weird Asia place. If you can find internet, go on Netflix or Amazon. You will be very disappointed.
Most of the world doesn't get any benefits from Amazon Prime, and a very partial library from Netflix. With such lame offering, why would most of the world switch to something that costs money and doesn't give anything much in return?
This is without even mentioning that $10/mo in the US is not the same level of pay as in some other countries. You essentially pay more (relatively speaking) and get less
Shachar
nice
I live in a "non DMCA" country, meaning, that I have to jump hoops to even purchase anything legally, let alone streaming. Even if we ignore income/price ratio differences between US and, say, Belarus or some other not-so-well-off country, people have to HUNT for an opportunity to buy digital content legally. Amazon, albeit most popular, is geo-blocking. Apple thingy does not allow downloads + also geoblocks. Google music is much more open, but limited in content. BandCamp is mostly empty/indie. When will publishers realize, that they are shooting themselves in the leg with such an approach? With geo-blocking they don't prevent piracy, they proactively foster it, because even that single-digit percentile of well-off population is just unable to give their money away. I would recommend them to open up and enjoy the money stream.
So, they pirate for the same reason I used to - they can't afford to get content legally. (since then I've bought much of what I pirated. If it was any good.)
"despite Netflix"?
We get less than 40% of the catalogue in my country (Denmark).
And this goes for other services as well.
I don't want to wait up to 3 years before "My Show, Season X" finally airs in my location.
Netflix Denmark STILL doesn't have the last season of several shows they offer.
So I can either wait up to 3 years before I can watch shows or pirate it.
- Don't do what I do, it's probably not healthy nor safe. -
Many of these cable companies and movie studies cite "lost revenue" as a result of piracy. These numbers are also flawed because, let's face it, the only reason why many pirates even watch/stream pirated content is because it's free. I would be willing to bet that more than half wouldn't even bother going to the movies and paying for it. Sort of like free firewood in the state parks. The minute they make you pay for it, suddenly the night gets quiet =)
That's where I get my pirated content.
Netflix has a nasty habit of removing series TV shows in the middle of me finally getting around to watch them. Others, all they show are "collections" missing a lot of the show's episodes
I went without any TV or cable for over two decades due to being "privileged" enough to not afford any sort of cable service. So I'm playing catch up on every single show that might be interesting during that time. And revisiting stuff I loved as a child. Lots of stuff that isn't even available on DVD to purchase on Amazon, much less stream.
For stuff I cannot find available on even physical media, or only "collectors" stuff priced at hundreds of dollars and even then often PAL or the wrong region code, I can find on youtube ( is that still 'pirated'?) or downloadable.
Hell, how much stuff has gone off streaming simply because the company that had it last had their rights "expire" or some such and the original company doesn't exist to allow anyone to purchase it? How much stuff went down the Memory Hole because it didn't sell enough action figures? Hell there's stuff that has disappeared due to Political Correctness. Those old WWII Looney Tunes, Popeye and other propaganda type films? Sometimes you see a collection in the bargain bin, but they're too 'racist' to be shown on Netflix. Disney's Song of the South? forget about that. Network, the movie about Media making its own news for its own ratings, back in the 70's? Tricky to catch on disc, forget about streaming.
Someday, the media companies that peddle this stuff will realize that once we, as a people, evolve out of such crap, and then have media that actually provides good to the social community.
The media companies continue to enjoy record profits, (except Sony - their own fault), so don't believe that "pirated content" is killing anything. Remember that, when I tell you that I used to pay $20 for a dinner AND a movie... and Hollywood is just remaking old shows... it's not new, it's old... burned out and reused. Sorry... When the content get's better, it may be something worth paying for.
In my country Netflix has the same rate as in the US and has about 11% of the content. None of the ~10 tv shows I watch are on it...
And they still complain? Who is not being paid? I think there are institutions for those cases so piracy is just a matter of settling payments for all because those are payments always positive for all.