Wheen
Bytesexual
Retired
We know that Netflix has been killing it in new subscriber counts quarter after quarter, but that might be having some unexpected consequences. According to TorrentFreak, the increasing prevalence of Netflix is having a negative effect on US-based BitTorrent piracy. Apparently, if you give people a good deal on content, a lot of them will stop pirating movies.
TorrentFreak is not about to call time of death on torrents. There are no hard numbers on the effect, but they note, "We have some preliminary stats which show that the number of absolute US [Torrent] downloaders slightly decreased over the last year." Netflix has made a name for itself streaming a large catalog of films and television for a low price. Torrents were previously one of the few ways to get the same content for a low price (in its case, free).
Make no mistake, Netflix isn't going to totally stop piracy. But this trend could show that many consumers would like to pay for their content, they just lacked a viable option until recently. Do you think content owners should take this as a sign, and go with the streaming flow?
Source - Maximum PC
Honestly, I don't find this hard to believe. I personally purchase items that I illegally download, if I enjoy them enough to justify the cost, and have heard from many people that they do too. If the cost shrinks to the point that I can justify it, I will.
- Operating System
- Windows