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One of the main reasons given by pirates for their downloading of TV shows and movies, is that there's no decent quality, convenient and fast way to watch the content when they want, how they want. However, this isn't necessarily the case with the recent launch of the Netflix funded fourth season of Arrested Development, which recently debuted on the on-demand platform. Despite this though, it's still being downloaded tens of thousands of times via torrent sites.
According to TorrentFreak stats, over 175,000 people downloaded the first episode of the new series. Of course this is a lot smaller than the millions that regularly torrent the new Game of Thrones episodes, but it's still a noticeable number. What's the reason for people downloading illegally, when for just a few pounds, they can watch it on any Netflix enabled device? Are they just cheap? Is it force of habit? Even better convenience?
[Insert in-joke here]
Looking at some of the comments for this story, for most it's a case that they'll pay for a service and then consider that as giving them the right to download and use the files as they like. Most of them don't want to have to be connected to the internet in order to enjoy the media, or don't have the smart features on their TV to be able to watch in their bedroom or similar.
Another big reason is geographical availability. Australia is one of the world's biggest pirates, simply because it doesn't have legal access to a lot of the shows we do. Netflix just isn't available there.
Despite these hiccups, Netflix needs to be applauded for its efforts. It's one of the few media companies actively listening to consumers and tailoring its service to their requests.
KitGuru Says: Do you guys download? If so, do you also have a Netflix or Lovefilm account as well?
It’s the fact that Netflix, Hulu and the other websites similar to this have GeoIP filtering. As much as some would like to think, the US doesn’t represent the whole world.
I have Netflix, and one of the biggest issues for me in what I watch with it, is moreso that the majority of what I watch has stopped producing DVDs in North America, thereby they’ve removed these completely from Netflix, even from DVD rental, and otherwise they are only available by paying extreme amounts of money for the remaining DVDs in the market, or importing them from out of the country for over 200% of the price they were selling for over here. Plus, Netflix doesn’t really have any major HD streaming at all. Most of the time, shoving a DVD in my HDMI enabled DVD player, even though DVDs max out at 480p, I get much better picture out of it, than trying to watch a streamed show in 480p on anything else.
ratonbox has THE point. USA is not the world.
In 3rd world countries (like in South America), people don’t have international credit cards to pay the member fee… So, for them, its mandatory to torrent it.
I must admit I do download the occasional game for my PC. Having said that. Even if piracy didn’t exist I was never going to buy these games in the 1st place so me downloading them isn’t actually costing the game company anything. If i do happen to DL a game that I think is worth purchasing I will go and buy it.