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[Fuz]

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/d3q45v/bittorrent-usage-increases-netflix-streaming-sites

This is clearly a case of "No shit, Sherlock".
And I suspect this tendency inversion will hit gaming too in the forthcoming years.

 

[Javthusiast]

Obviously, the more services you have to subscibe to and the more stuff just gets split up, the more incentive is there to consume some of it illegaly.

 

[hargwood]

I pirate literally everything at the moment because of all these different services for movies, games and music.

You can have Amazon Prime, Netflix and a Satelitte TV subscription and you still wouldn't have access to all the TV shows or Movies you want. Yet I can go to a streaming site or get a torrent for any movie ever released in theatres or direct to video.

For games it is a case by case basis. EA? I don't trust the game to be supported for more than 3 months so I'll pirate it. CDProjektRed? I'm day one special edition because I know I'm getting a good base game with inevitably wonderful DLC for the next 18-24months.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

It seemed like for awhile Netflix was all you needed, and maybe Hulu. Now it’s like pc game stores/launchers.

 

[Mr Hyde]

I´m still rocking Netflix only. But then again, I don´t watch that many movies or shows so I´m all good.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

I´m still rocking Netflix only. But then again, I don´t watch that many movies or shows so I´m all good.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

This is the future of PC gaming. We will no longer have an all-powerful streaming brand that offers 90% of what we want, nor will we have an all-powerful PC store that offers 90% of what we want.

It's a big turnoff for me. I'm not fond of the "all digital future" and splitting my time and attention across several services -- each with their own fee and catalog -- is a waste of my goodwill as a customer.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

It's a big turnoff for me. .

Totally

 

[DKehoe]

I pirate literally everything at the moment because of all these different services for movies, games and music.

You can have Amazon Prime, Netflix and a Satelitte TV subscription and you still wouldn't have access to all the TV shows or Movies you want. Yet I can go to a streaming site or get a torrent for any movie ever released in theatres or direct to video.

For games it is a case by case basis. EA? I don't trust the game to be supported for more than 3 months so I'll pirate it. CDProjektRed? I'm day one special edition because I know I'm getting a good base game with inevitably wonderful DLC for the next 18-24months.

Just a heads up for anyone who isn’t aware, admitting to piracy is a good way to get a ban.

 

[-Minsc-]

I'd rather not pirate so my mind is working in the direction of dropping the services all together and put my time elsewhere. Perhaps I'll pay for one service to get access to some documentaries.

 

[petran79]

Streaming would be actually a cheap solution for series with hundreds of episodes that would be very expensive to buy separately. Especially lengthy animated series do benefit from it.

Streaming sites also do not allow to store the file to the hdd and watch it on the go without internet connection, kinda like Steam offline mode. This limits portability. Rise of piracy could also be related to this, plus BD and HD TV rips have better quality and more subtitle options in many unsupported languages, fansubbed mostly.

 

[tuco11]

edit .

 

[tkscz]

Streaming would be actually a cheap solution for series with hundreds of episodes that would be very expensive to buy separately. Especially lengthy animated series do benefit from it.

Streaming sites also do not allow to store the file to the hdd and watch it on the go without internet connection, kinda like Steam offline mode. This limits portability. Rise of piracy could also be related to this, plus BD and HD TV rips have better quality and more subtitle options in many unsupported languages, fansubbed mostly.

Not to mention better sound options. I seriously can't believe none of the streaming services support 5.1 or 7.1 surround.

I also find it weird how some companies will make competing streaming services against themselves. Like, Warner is about to launch it's own Streaming service this year, but they also launched the DC streaming service last year. Why aren't they just one service under the same company?

 

[Fbh]

The article is a bit weird:

By 2015, BitTorrent’s share of upstream traffic on these networks had dipped to 26.83 percent, largely thanks to the rise in quality, inexpensive streaming alternatives to piracy.
But Sandvine notes that trend is now reversing slightly, with BitTorrent’s traffic share once again growing worldwide. That’s especially true in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa, where BitTorrent now accounts for 32% of all upstream network traffic.

"By 2015 it accounted for 26.83 of upstream traffic in the US but now it's up to 32% in the Middle East, Europe and Africa".
Those 2 pieces of information don't correlate with each other.



Either way, yeah it's annoying and I think moving forward the only way to watch content from various services without spending $50 a month is going to be to subscribe to these services on a per-month basis. Wait until Netflix has released a few interesting shows then subscribe for a month or two to watch, then just wait until another service has some good releases and subscribe for a month or two to watch those, etc

Streaming sites also do not allow to store the file to the hdd and watch it on the go without internet connection, kinda like Steam offline mode. This limits portability. Rise of piracy could also be related to this, plus BD and HD TV rips have better quality and more subtitle options in many unsupported languages, fansubbed mostly.

Netflix does allow to download content to watch offline but the system is a bit of a pain in the ass:
- It only works on iOS/Android/Windows and Mac so no console or built in app on a smart TV
- It only works on select titles (I'm not really sure how wide the selection is)
- Downloaded content expires after a while which makes sense but it seems like the expiration time varies depending on the title which is annoying

 

[Z..]

Yet to find any single streaming service with a decent catalog of film. Mubi is the only one with a decent selection but it's incredibly limited.

 

[dorkimoe]

Couldn’t agree with this more. I have 3 streaming services. I am NOT doing Disney or cbs or anything else.

That being said that new Star Trek is great, but look at Friends...netflix forked over a cash truck to have it, CBS or whoever it was could just plaster there logo on it, dont need to take it off to put it on your dumb service that people dont want to subscribe too.

 

[guggnichso]

Look, I have made it to year 41 of my life now, that’s 2/3 of my fathers life, I now am blessed to have experienced one year more than my uncle, and if my grandparents are a mark to go by, I am way over half time of my life.

If there’s one thing I learned, it’s that you can’t experience EVERYTHING you want to in one human lifespan. At some point you have to choose and live by your choice. You simply don’t have the time for all the things you want to read, do and see.

So fuck it. This is just TV. There’s a million of better and more important things to do than watching the tube. Spend money for what you reasonably can consume and thus provide for the people that made it. Write the other stuff up as unimportant. There’s enough other stuff to do.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

honestly theres so much content to consume that its unnecessary to have access to it all. just be content that you will not see every little bit of quality entertainment out there in your life... even if you DID have all the access you could ever want, you wouldnt have enough time to consume it all anyways. so the sooner people realize this the better. just pick a sub or two per type of media content and enjoy what you got.

best idea is to just switch subs every few years. if these services are gonna be around and keep their libaries available, no reason you have to consume shit immediately. binge netflix for a few years, then switch and binge hulu, then disney for a year. by the time you return to netflix there will be enough new content for you to binge.

honestly i cant wait to see the digital service bubble crash. one of my most anticipated bubbles. I'm gonna guess that the cable companies are going to offer package deals though which will keep them all afloat and cable companies relevant and alive while people keep cord cutting.

 

[Trojita]

Streaming Services: You know those shows you liked or were planning to watch next? They've been removed.

 

[Bwesh]

I only use Netflix but it's still missing a lot of the shows I liked from before, so I pirate those.

 

[Mihos]

I have Netflix and what ever comes with Prime. The removing shows thing sucks, almost everything I wanted to rewatch is gone.

Only other site I may consider is Disney.

 

[jufonuk]

Netflix and TV with its VOD is enough for me not enough time to watch a the shows I want so I make do with what I have. Truth is I’ve been watching being the elite the last few weeks and that has entertained me a hell of a lot more than a few shows out there. Most of my time is used elsewhere now so I watch what I can when I can and Netflix is good as I can dive in and out and I haven’t watched all the shows movies etc so plenty enough to keep me occupied

Also U.K. GAF , Freeview and Netflix plus bbc iPlayer and other U.K. based players for tv companies that offer vod have a shit ton of content. I never got into GoT etc so don’t feel the need to watch it. I’ll do why I did with the sopranos wait until it ends then buy a box set and go nuts lol

 

[kunonabi]

For movies and TV Netflix and hulu is good enough for me and I also bum off my parents Prime.

Other than that crunchyroll, njpworld, and WWE network covers everything else.

I'm not messing with anything else.

 

[Stitch]

Yeah people will pirate the shit out of Disney+


Funny thing I've noticed is when something gets taken down on Netflix it will show up on Prime and when it gets taken down on Prime it will show up on Netflix.

 

[Yoshi]

I do not know how the other streaming services operate, because Netflix has what I care most about (Star Trek), but if they also allow monthly cancellations, then a good alternative to subscribing to several services is just to "hop around". Watch what you are interested in on Netflix, then cancel and subscribe to another service.

 

[FireEmoji]

Streaming sites also do not allow to store the file to the hdd and watch it on the go without internet connection, kinda like Steam offline mode.

Errr Netflix does.

 

[Super Mario]

Ah, the entitlement of having access to all content out there for pennies. There's just so many choices, and piracy is too convenient. That's what it comes down to.

Internet complainer: You should be able to pick what you want a la carte instead of a $100+ package as your only choice
Also Internet complainer: Why are there so many choices now at $10-15 a month?!

One largely welcome change is the introduction of streaming cable services. They are an absolutely god-send.

 

[hariseldon]

It's simple really. It has some similarity to how football rights for the premier league in the uk went. For the longest time football was free on terrestrial TV, and then it went to Sky. People bought their subscriptions to sky, football was the killer app that got people to use sky instead of terrestrial TV. Then the rights got portioned up and some went to Sky and some to BT. The sky subscription didn't get any cheaper, but the BT was an added cost. Do people want to pay for that? Do they fuck. This is the same.

 

[pr0cs]

As much as it pains me to agree with anything vice says I think they're right.

This is made worse when you realize that the content on these streaming services differs from region to region with no way around it either.

This last week we were in Mexico (originally live in Canada) and my kids lost their shit when they saw how much better the USA version of Netflix is compared to Canada.

I don't blame people for piracy when there are so many barriers to getting content depending on where you live

 

[Makariel]

Obviously, the more services you have to subscibe to and the more stuff just gets split up, the more incentive is there to consume some of it illegaly.

Why is "just not watching it then" not an option?

 

[Omega Supreme Holopsicon]

There was a recent study showing that some level of piracy benefits consumers as well as corporations by keeping them honest, and serving as competition to potential monopolistic entities.

"promotes products"
https://phys.org/news/2008-03-digital-piracy-benefit-companies.html

"New research suggests that turning a blind eye to piracy can benefit consumers, creators and retailers, all at the same time. This win-win-win situation has a positive effect on the economy at large. Using Game of Thrones as an example, the researchers conclude that tolerating piracy to a certain degree can be a wise decision. "
https://torrentfreak.com/tolerating...creators-and-retailers-research-finds-190128/

 

[FireEmoji]

There was a recent study showing that some level of piracy benefits consumers as well as corporations by keeping them honest, and serving as competition to potential monopolistic entities.

"promotes products"
https://phys.org/news/2008-03-digital-piracy-benefit-companies.html

"New research suggests that turning a blind eye to piracy can benefit consumers, creators and retailers, all at the same time. This win-win-win situation has a positive effect on the economy at large. Using Game of Thrones as an example, the researchers conclude that tolerating piracy to a certain degree can be a wise decision. "
https://torrentfreak.com/tolerating...creators-and-retailers-research-finds-190128/

Claiming not showing. lol

And pretty hilarious they claim it's only for a "moderate level of piracy" and use Game of Thrones as their example.

"Hey look, the most pirated stuff actually makes more money! Conclusion: Piracy helps!"

Uhhh.. yeah the most popular stuff is also pirated the most...

 

[GoldenEye98]

Whenever I hear a justification for piracy I just think it's bullshit. At the end of the day people pirate BECAUSE THEY CAN GET WAY WITH IT.

You rarely see this with physical goods. Imagine hearing the title "Rising fruit prices have pushed consumers back towards stealing/looting"....you don't...because the risk of being caught is much greater. And whenever looting does happen it's usually during natural disasters when law enforcement is not around (aka people think they can get away with it...)

 

[Omega Supreme Holopsicon]

Claiming not showing. lol

And pretty hilarious they claim it's only for a "moderate level of piracy" and use Game of Thrones as their example.

"Hey look, the most pirated stuff actually makes more money! Conclusion: Piracy helps!"

Uhhh.. yeah the most popular stuff is also pirated the most...

Not everyone who pirates is a potential customer, at least not till they have the budget for it.

Right now there's more content than anyone can afford, and demos and trials are often missing. If someone goes to a friend's house, a friend that own's a particular movie, I'm sure the parties that be would like to make that into piracy too, only those who've paid can see, and for a limited time.

PS

I think companies should probably be forced to offer a license to each others IP at a reasonable licensing fee. It would foster consumer choice. Maybe exclusivity periods of a few months, or years, but certainly not centuries behind paywalls, it is madness the law allows that.

The idea of intellectual property runs counter to common sense, we can't own ideas. We need serious reform of copyright and an expansion of fair use doctrine. The fundamental reason for the copyright idea is to promote creation of art and sciences not inhibit it.

 

[mekes]

I just use kodi with a real debrid sub.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

Whenever I hear a justification for piracy I just think it's bullshit. At the end of the day people pirate BECAUSE THEY CAN GET WAY WITH IT.

You rarely see this with physical goods. Imagine hearing the title "Rising fruit prices have pushed consumers back towards stealing/looting"....you don't...because the risk of being caught is much greater. And whenever looting does happen it's usually during natural disasters when law enforcement is not around (aka people think they can get away with it...)

Every Indiana Jones movie has fruit being stolen from a street cart.

So it must be true.

Just sayin

Nah but for real: with VPNs being so popular
now can’t anyone get away with pirating almost anything? Seems like a hard problem to solve

 

[Sp3eD]

Streaming services will be like television channels in the near future which is hilarious when just a few years ago people talked about “cord cutting” from traditional tv.

I’ve just given up on streaming stuff all together really. Worried about the gaming implications in the next 5 years though......

 

[jshackles]

I do not know how the other streaming services operate, because Netflix has what I care most about (Star Trek), but if they also allow monthly cancellations, then a good alternative to subscribing to several services is just to "hop around". Watch what you are interested in on Netflix, then cancel and subscribe to another service.

Which is why it's such a gut punch to us Americans that the new shows (Discovery, et al) are locked behind CBS All Access, yet another streaming service. The older series are (or were, haven't checked in a while) on Amazon Prime. Luckily I bought DS9 and Voyager on Google Play ages ago. And I have the Original Series and TNG in HD on VUDU. I've got Blu Rays of Enterprise.

And this is definitely a problem.

 

[cryptoadam]

I will put another spin on this, that the rise of piracy is based on that its gotten way easier in the last few years. You can download on your andorid phone without jailbreaking or hacking mulitple programs that are like Netflix except with every single movie and TV show even movies in the cinema.

Its literally like Netflix. They have thumbnail poster covers, you click it and bam the movie is playing its that easy. And unlike Kodi no installing apps or anything involved. Add in the fact that chormecast cost 30 bucks/most TV's have casting built in and its even easier to watch something from your phone/PC on your TV. No need for HDMI cords or anything.

So to break it down before you had to torrent on a website (took some searching and sometimes being a memeber of a good torrent site) or setting up Kodi with all these different apps and websites and hubs. Now download an app to your phone, put allow 3rd party apps in settings, and within 2 minutes you have every movie and TV show at your fingertips. Then click the cast icon and boom you watching it on your 65 inch TV.

***I am not endorising piracy and won't name names of these programs, just saying how much easier it is now then even 3/4 years ago***

 

[Dunki]

There is another reason for the piracy. The licensing in other Countries except US is terrible in Germany I get a small fraction of shows and movies you would get in the US and VPN also does not work anymore....

 

[Heebie Jeebies]

Netflix and NowTV covers most bases premium wise in the UK. Amazon Prime is incredibly hit and miss with it's content.

 

[TheUsual]

I live with my girlfriend. I pay for Netflix and she pays for Hulu. Outside of Amazon Prime show stuff that comes with the membership, we aren't going to subscribe to anything else.

I don't blame people pirating this stuff as more and more stuff gets locked out into stupid different streaming services.

It'll be a cycle and a good chunk will come back.

 

[Grinchy]

"Hey we can finally get rid of that expensive cable bill!"

• Amazon Prime: $10 (for a yearly plan of $120, $13 for a single month)
• Hulu (no ads): $12
• Netflix: $13
• Disney: $15? (don't know what this will cost)
• Do you want to add HBO and Showtime to your Hulu?: $15 and $11

Suddenly you could be at over $70 per month if you want to be able to access almost everything you want to watch. You still don't even have live TV. If you're a sports fan, you might want to tack on something like Vue ($35) bringing you over $100 per month.

Yeah, you can always juggle accounts and only buy single months whenever you want to watch a specific show, but how many people are willing to do that? Not to mention, those single months have higher rates than yearly subscriptions in some cases.

The entire reason Netflix helped curb piracy was because it was affordable and easy. It's way easier to turn your TV on with a Netflix app already on it and click a couple buttons to resume your 15th viewing of The Office than it is to deal with torrents. But juggling 5+ accounts depending on what shows you feel like watching at that time is not easy or convenient or affordable. It's not surprising at all that people would go back to torrents.

 

[BlueAlpaca]

I do this every few months:

- subscribe to netflix
- spend a few minutes everyday flicking through the options
- not watch anything
- cancel netflix.

When people talk about there being so much quality entertainment I feel like I'm in an alternate reality.

 

[cryptoadam]

First world problems, having to deal with 5 or 6 TV streaming accounts to watch 1000's of hours of TV.

My god the horrors of having to install a few apps on your phone/TV/Set top Box how can we survive.

If you told anyone in 1980 or 1990 that the future would be unlimited on demand entertainmant at your fingertips but you just have to have 5 different services they would jizz in their pants. How about we go back to a bunch of cable channels where if you missed your show you were SOL until it ran in reruns during the summer. Want to watch a movie better hope its edited on TV or you catch the one time a week its playing on HBO (which you pay an arm and a leg for).

People have it so good and easy today that they don't even realize it.

 

[Grinchy]

First world problems, having to deal with 5 or 6 TV streaming accounts to watch 1000's of hours of TV.

My god the horrors of having to install a few apps on your phone/TV/Set top Box how can we survive.

If you told anyone in 1980 or 1990 that the future would be unlimited on demand entertainmant at your fingertips but you just have to have 5 different services they would jizz in their pants. How about we go back to a bunch of cable channels where if you missed your show you were SOL until it ran in reruns during the summer. Want to watch a movie better hope its edited on TV or you catch the one time a week its playing on HBO (which you pay an arm and a leg for).

People have it so good and easy today that they don't even realize it.

Do you still hunt your own food and build your own log cabin? People are always going to side with convenience when possible. If there's something more convenient than juggling 5 apps, they will use it. No one is going to sit there and say, "Well, this would seem amazing to people 30 years ago so I'll forgo that easier path in honor of my elders!" That makes zero sense lol

 

[Susurrus]

I have Netflix and Amazon Prime (which I mostly can't use since I'm stationed overseas and mostly use it for the shipping).

Netflix has enough for me. Seriously, I don't need to watch everything. I watch 1 episode a night if that of something, and there's more than enough on Netflix to keep me busy.

Any exceptions, I'll just buy a season of it on Amazon and be done with it. I make a decent paycheck, no reason why I can't put $20 down on 15-20 hours of entertainment.

 

[cryptoadam]

Do you still hunt your own food and build your own log cabin? People are always going to side with convenience when possible. If there's something more convenient than juggling 5 apps, they will use it. No one is going to sit there and say, "Well, this would seem amazing to people 30 years ago so I'll forgo that easier path in honor of my elders!" That makes zero sense lol

well when you pirate you have to juggle many apps too, sometimes your app goes down, sometimes it disappears completely. Kodi is dead now all those people who were using it because it was convenient are SOL.

To me its kinda lame problem oh wow you have to use a few different services. Its still better than cable. But TBH I don't have cable and don't watch much TV/Movies. I don't have Netflix or Hulu or any other services. So maybe my perspective is skewed. Even with multiple services what we have today is 100 times better than what we had 20/30 years ago.

 

[badblue]

Whenever I hear a justification for piracy I just think it's bullshit. At the end of the day people pirate BECAUSE THEY CAN GET WAY WITH IT.

I know a lot of people here in Canada that pirate a lot, simply because companies here will buy the streaming rights for shows/movies and then just sit on them preventing that ease of access.
For example Bob's Burgers was recently removed from Netflix Canada. It's not available on any other streaming service here. Amazon does not offer it's digital (rent/buy) store here. I don't have a US address or credit card, so buying seasons (for $4.99usd-$9.99usd) is unavailable to me on the .com store front. Youtube video/Google play are an option, but the prices, when compared to Amazon.com prices are absurd, $19.99 - $35.99cnd a season.
Fuck iTunes, but the prices are the same.
Rinse and repeat for every single show that is not available here.

Now i know there are ways around these problems, VPN's, Kodi and such. (the Telecoms here are pushing to make VPN's illegal), but for people that are not that computer savvy, it's 100 times easier to just to find a torrent.

To Add to that, some of the streaming services that are available here are terrible. Buffering every 30 seconds, extremely laggy UI and lacking the QOL features that we are used to with Netflix.

You may think it's bullshit reasoning, but if the majority of these issues did not exist piracy would look less attractive.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

I pay for music and shows via one streaming service each. I also go to the movies. Things that aren’t available to me after that, I don’t feel super duper terrible about watching illegally in theory only but never in practice