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Netflix Is Not Going to Kill Piracy, Research Suggests (torrentfreak.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

Even as more people than ever are tuning to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and other streaming services to look, piracy too continues to thrive, a research suggests. An anonymous reader shares a report: Intrigued by this interplay of legal and unauthorized viewing, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Universidade Catolica Portuguesa carried out an extensive study. They partnered with a major telco, which is not named, to analyze if BitTorrent downloading habits can be changed by offering legal alternatives. The researchers used a piracy-tracking firm to get a sample of thousands of BitTorrent pirates at the associated ISP. Half of them were offered a free 45-day subscription to a premium TV and movies package, allowing them to watch popular content on demand. To measure the effects of video-on-demand access on piracy, the researchers then monitored the legal viewing activity and BitTorrent transfers of the people who received the free offer, comparing it to a control group. The results show that piracy is harder to beat than some would expect. Subscribers who received the free subscription watched more TV, but overall their torrenting habits didn't change significantly. "We find that, on average, households that received the gift increased overall TV consumption by 4.6% and reduced Internet downloads and uploads by 4.2% and 4.5%, respectively. However, and also on average, treated households did not change their likelihood of using BitTorrent during the experiment," the researchers write.

2 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. We need severe, mandatory penalties by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    I suggest we abandon the fruitless and ill-conceived war on drugs, and focus all that effort and time in a new war on piracy. Harsh, mandatory penalties, three-strike rules, the whole shebang. No death penalty of course because that's too much, but everything up to that, including life in prison for multiple high-profile offenses. With drugs, you're mostly fucking up your own life. When you pirate, you're stealing from other people, and hurting them and their families. There is a clear and distinct difference. It should be vigorously rooted out and destroyed.

  2. Re:because what you want to watch isn't on netflix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    simple as that: if you can't find it on netflix, what then?

    Find something else to watch?

    You wanting something isn't magical. You're certainly not entitled to it. It's fucking television, you will survive if you don't watch the latest trendy TV show.

    Stop acting like a whiny child ... your options aren't "Netflix or piracy" ... your options also include show some self control and don't watch it. You're not running out of options, you're just refusing to accept "suck it up princess" as one of them.

    Have we raised an entire generation with the impulse control of toddlers?

    Want to pirate it? Go ahead, I don't give a fuck, I've got no skin in the game. But if you choose to, remember, the legal consequences are all yours. Because remember, these guys are assholes and play for keeps.