Aussie Internet Pirates Are The Best Customers (torrentfreak.com) 48
A report commissioned by the Australian government has found a drop in piracy rates for 2016. The fall is being attributed to improved availability of legal streaming alternatives, but as TorrentFreak points out, the report also reveals that the much reviled Aussie pirate is often the industry's best customer. From the report: Streaming, on the other hand, increased from 54% to 57% year on year, with TV shows and movies making the biggest gains. "The proportion of internet users who streamed TV programs increased from 34% to 38% (making TV the most commonly accessed content type via online streaming) and the proportion of internet users who streamed movies increased from 25% to 29%," the report reads. This year the most-consumed content were TV shows (41%, up from 38% in 2015), music (39%, down from 42% in 2015) and movies (33%) and video games (15%). When all four content types were considered, the survey found that consumers streaming content on a weekly basis increased significantly, with 71% doing so for music and videos games, 55% for TV programs and 51% for movies. [...] However, in yet another blow to those who believe that genuine consumers and pirates are completely different and separate animals, the survey also reveals that millions of pirates are also consumers of legitimate content. In 2016, just 6% of Internet users exclusively obtained content from pirate sources. And there was an improvement in other areas too. When the survey presents figures from internet users who consumed content in the period (instead of just 'all Internet users 12+'), 37% consumed at least one unlawful file, down from 43% in the same period in 2015. Using the same parameters, 9% consumed all of their files unlawfully, down from 12% in 2015. But while there have been improvements in a number of areas, the volume of content being consumed illegally is not coming down across the board. According to the report, an estimated 279m music tracks, 56m TV shows, 34m movies, and 5m video games were consumed in the three month period.
And yet TPP extends copyright to life + 70 (Score:1)
We're all going to be pirates--excuse me, copyright infringers--one day.
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And now we get to pay it forward to our kids. e.g., "Gone from Netflix?" "Don't worry, son, we'll just download it. Let me show you how." It makes me smile.
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I have a desire and a limit. The desire is to be constantly entertained. The limit is how far my finances stretch. At the moment my finances stretch to a Netflix account, a Spotify account and the occasional Steam game. Piracy supplements variety in that scenario so:
I don't pirate music, spotify has more than enough variety and official youtube videos cover any gaps.
I don't pirate games - steam, despite it's pricing issues, more than provides the games I need and other services cover
TPP is very bad for workers rights and the ISDS (Score:2)
TPP is very bad for workers rights and the ISDS part will suck for all of us.
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You ignore my rights, I ignore your laws. It's only fair.
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It's called a prawn.
Consumed (Score:1)
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Really? Wow, never woulda thunk it! (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems like when you provide the content people want to see instead of geo locking it, you make money instead of losing money to pirating! Huh, what a weird concept!
Re: Really? Wow, never woulda thunk it! (Score:2, Interesting)
Exactly. I was paying to stream a particular TV show by using a VPN to bypass Geo restrictions.
The owner then signed and exclusive deal with another streaming service that has harsher Geo checks that blocks most cons.
I have now downloaded the remaining episodes.
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I was paying to stream a particular TV show by using a VPN to bypass Geo restrictions.
But you never paid for any of the shows in the first place and you never will so you're still a thief.
Sounds to me like he was paying, but bypassing geo-restrictions. And you call that thieving? Really? Please explain.
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Talk about a No Shit, Sherlock moment for the execs. Everybody else has already known this for 20 years.
Gee, when content isn't legally available people's choices are:
* Pirate it,
* Don't watch it.
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There was a third option, pay inflated prices for it, those prices produced by cartel actions to pre-buy all available content and only distribute via their channels at inflated prices brought to you by the dick himself Rupert bloody Murdoch, we finally managed to dump him on the Americans and the ass hat is still screwing us over. Hey Yanks, when are you finally going to lock that bastard up, I hope it's soon ;D.
Strawmen and the obvious conclusion (Score:2)
"However, in yet another blow to those who believe that genuine consumers and pirates are completely different and separate animals"
Who has ever said that?
"In line with 2015, 43% of infringers said that better pricing would be the factor that would be most likely to reduce their consumption of illicit content."
Well there's an amazing conclusion. Is anyone surprised that if stuff was cheaper, people are less likely to take it for nothing?
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Is anyone surprised that if stuff was cheaper, people are less likely to take it for nothing?
I'm confused now. Let's say legitimate providers make content available for free. Then should we take that, or keep pirating the stuff anyway?
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Well, I would probably pirate anyway.
Official channels doesn't provide information about encoding quality or ensure that the content is free from malware.
You'd think that it should be a given that they made sure those things are good but for some odd reason they don't.
I'm also not willing to pay for commercials or content that is limited to specific hardware and that might act up if I try to play it on next generation hardware.
Piracy provides better quality. Since I'm willing to pay more for better quality
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If it's available ad free on one of the services I subscribe to I'll watch it there instead but I don't mind watching the ad supported free content from places like cwtv or cbs.
It's not necessarily the cost of a single service like netflix, hulu, or amazon prime that's prohibitive it's the cost of subscribing to many different services to get the content you want and even then it may not be available.
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I would quite happily watch the ad supported version (have been watching broadcast tv for years), if it provided a decent service...
Having to use specific devices to access the services, having a bunch of different services rather than a single standard usable from any compatible device (like broadcast tv), having drm etc is a big turn off.
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Exactly the point, needing to subscribe to multiple services using multiple devices just to get a good selection of the content you want is a pain that no one wants to pay extra for.
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Is anyone surprised that if stuff was cheaper, people are less likely to take it for nothing?
I thought it was supposed to be about honouring the principle of Free-as-in-freedom Culture being shared for the worldwide betterment of humanity on their journey to the stars?
Or are you suggesting that most people who pirate are just cheapskates?
Re:Strawmen and the obvious conclusion (Score:5, Interesting)
The basic problem is not price, but availability.
Australia has its own entertainment infrastructure but citizens want American shit to watch.
Geo-fencing enforces what amounts to a continental monopoly as in, "We don't allow no foreign entertainment here, so eat what we put on the table in support of the domestic economy."
Australians are willing and able to pay for American content, and Australia doesn't have anything America (or Aussies) want.
Queue the secondary access methods.
The news here isn't that Aussie piracy has decreased.
The news (found elsewhere) is that legal access to American content has increased.
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I agree with you.
I would add that the entertainment industry, including by way of example, but not by way of limitation, video, audio, and text, charges way too damned much for their shit.
CEOs and shareholders are greedy and profit margins are insane.
That's true for sports ranging from college to pro, as well.
Those industries are incapable of controlling their IP, so they are working with governments to tamp down piracy.
That will never work, no matter what's done.
When IP is digitized, it becomes available t
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I am a media consumer - and a "pirate" (Score:5, Interesting)
I have hundreds of DVDs, CDs, I have ripped my collections to drive arrays and generally rely on the digital versions of said collections (Thanks Plex, Thex.)
Occasionally something comes out (like a movie) and I'm not sure I want to buy the damn thing so I download it first. Same thing with some older movies, not sure if I'm going to like it and the only option I got is to pirate (or hope that it gets a Netflix release)
Then there's rare stuff, niche stuff, or stuff not up for general release. Amazon which carries a lot of stuff doesn't have everything (oh I want a non-4:3 cropped version of an obscure 80s horror movie? There is no disc option for this region. Oh I want some old anime "music box" collection? No sorry there was a small Japan-only re-release 6 years ago) All these things I've gotten online and online-only. I'd pay for 'em if I could but they will never be formally released because the demand is so microscopic it's not "worth it" ~~~ so, no choice, I'm gonna pirate it
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Why go so niche? Why not just say you want to buy a copy of Lady and the Tramp for your kids? Oh wait you can't. [wikipedia.org]
You can be damn certain you'll find a torrent of it somewhere though.
Yesterday (Score:3, Funny)
Yesterday I went to the library and consumed 13 items of non-fiction media, 2 graphic novels and a collection of short-SF works.
Then they kicked me out and the indigestion was terrible.
Wow (Score:4, Interesting)
What a conclusion! Mind boggling, ain't it.
I used to pirate pretty much everything back in the day, when my income would fit in any empty place, no matter how small. As my income started to increase, i gave up pirating. First went games - I now own over 200 games on Steam (about 5 being free-to-play), a handful on GOG and various others spread across uPlay and the like. Then software: the OS, the Office Suite and other software releases I am using often. The rarely used things are Open Source mostly.
Still downloading movies but after watching them, if they're worthy of watching again, I buy the DVD. Music? Online Radio satisfies me fully.
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Music? Online Radio satisfies me fully.
...which increase the number of listeners on the radio, which increases the price of any ads that they put in the program and money back to artists through IP.
And not to mention any concert tickets you might buy.
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Which is fine, however ads are in languages I don't understand (or barely understand). German, French and North European languages.
Slightly OT (Score:3)
"consumption" of video??? (Score:3)
". According to the report, an estimated 279m music tracks, 56m TV shows, 34m movies, and 5m video games were consumed in the three month period."
how were they "consumed"? did they print them out on rice paper, frame by frame and then and only then manage to EAT them?? this is how the cartels manage to make it look like people are criminals - by using words like "pirate" and "consumption". videos are not "physical objects". copies can't be "stolen". or CONSUMED. the watching of a video does NOT subtract any physical substance from the universe (except perhaps indirectly reducing brain matter due to complete boredom and lack of stimulus). we're being duped here. time to take back control.