A latest report Saturday revealed that media piracy is back and larger than before — and experts say streaming services are in charge.
Within the report, which was published by The Every day Beast, streamers resembling Max, Disney+ and Hulu are responsible for the surge after pulling popular titles from their platforms, prompting watchers to seek out alternative channels to view them.
One example used in the report was HBO’s sci-fi series “Westworld” which was yanked from the streaming platform Max shortly after it uploaded its fourth and final season.
One other got here in the shape of the ill-fated “Bat Girl” film which was shelved by Warner Brothers in August 2022 after it was so poorly received by moviegoers that the studio decided to chop its losses.
“Subscribers feel exhaustion and frustration once they can’t access ‘their content,’ or when titles—even titles produced for a streaming service — are dropped from that streaming service, or when titles bounce around from one streamer to a different,” director Alfred Giancarli told the outlet.
“I believe there are a number of reasons why people download or use digital file sharing to access movies,” Giancarli said. “From ease-of-use, cost- and space-saving, since the film will not be available where they live or could also be too expensive to acquire through traditional means.”
“The people I do know who do [pirate] are among the most rabid cinephiles I do know,” he added. “They’d happily pay for a movie in the event that they could.”
The net theft epidemic began in the early 2000s as several unrestricted media web sites resembling The Pirate Bay, LimeTorrents, TorrentDownloads and a number of other others began appearing all around the web — eluding authorities by launching latest URLs each time a predecessor was busted.
In response to a report by The Software Alliance, a company dedicated to fighting online piracy, by 2017, the variety of movies pirated had dropped by a whopping 37%.
“Current piracy levels are still nowhere near what they were five years ago,” Ernesto Van der Sar, editor of the trade publication TorrentFreak, told The Every day Beast.
Nevertheless, in 2021, the European Union Mental Property Office revealed that piracy was once more on the upswing.
“Current piracy levels are still nowhere near what they were five years ago,” Van der Sar wrote in TorrentFreak article. “Nevertheless, a trend reversal is notable and will suggest that we’re at a pivotal
point in time.”
Geography also plays a crucial role in what media is accessible.
In response to the report, studios often sell media distribution rights by territory for a specific amount of time.
While one distributor might handle the film for 10 years in the US, one other one could sell the rights in one other country for less or more time.
An example utilized by the reports days is that these “silos” are the rationale why you’re capable of watch one movie in the US but not the UK.
“The streaming industry has to converge towards a system where consumers can watch just about all the things they like for a reasonable price,” Van der Sars said. “That sounds straightforward, but in an industry that’s built around licensing silos with billions in revenue at stake, that’s easier said than done.”