I was curious too and checked the article but skimming it, instead of a total, I found this:
A new analysis from MUSO, a U.K.-based anti-piracy analyst [...]
With the study being done by a clearly biased person/group and that large omission, I think it's fair to assume that the % of total web traffic going to pirates might not have gone up all that much, maybe it even went down.
geolocking has zero reason to exist in an interconnected world. it is quite figuratively a crime against humanity, denying access to unfathomable amounts of art and culture because they live across a line on a map
It's amazing that the industry pushed this so hard. Once users get a taste of piracy they're going to keep coming back for more. It's almost like putting all the content behind extraordinarily specific walled gardens (region locks) was putting short term profit ahead of long term gains. The industry could have been less restrictive if people thought they would have access to their collections forever.
A while back I was watching Mad Men on Amazon and in the middle of season 6 I was asked to pay for the rest. With so many easy to use high-seas services out there anyone can guess what happened next.
The industry is never going to understand. This isn't even the first time their greed and stupidity created a market. Anyone old enough to remember movie rentals? The reason Blockbuster video existed was because the movie industry couldn't figure out what their product was worth. They wanted over 100 bucks (in 80s money) for a VHS movie, because to their mind each watch was the equivalent of a movie ticket. No one paid that ridiculous price of course besides businessmen who then rented those movies to you and me.
It's only partly about the money adding up from all these streaming services. The other element is that usenet, a NAS and the *arr apps provide a vastly better experience. I can hear about a movie I'm interested in and grab it straight away, usually up to full BluRay quality or, if it's not released yet it will grab it when it's released. When new TV episodes are available it just grabs them automatically and adds them to my Plex library.
I've switched to collecting discs, it feels more viscerally satisfying, like vinyl, plus not having to deal with shitty rips, or ISP tracking (i forgot to turn my VPN on once and they literally suspended my service and made me call and grovel to the guy on the phone), or worrying about drives failing (my biggest fear which seems somewhat inevitable for everyone). having a case and art in your hands feels nicer than clicking on a file. plus used blu rays are very cheap.
I totally get that, I buy physical media too. It’s worth mentioning that I used to torrent but stopped because I share the same concerns.
With Usenet there’s no uploading, just an encrypted connection to a server somewhere that’s hosting the files so I’m not making material available. That’s how you can get in trouble.
My NAS drives are in a RAID config, it’s not bulletproof but if I lose a drive I won’t lose data.
I was happy to pay to access content. Then it changed. First with the content getting worse and the price increases, but then - and this was the straw that broke the camel's back - when Netflix made the no account sharing decision.
I'm a single person household, and I don't watch much TV. I can't justify that shit. "But the lowest tier" - fuck no. I'm not paying for a low bitrate 720p stream with ads.
If they had been just a little less greedy, I'd have happily continued giving them £18/month for literally the rest of my life, but no. They have to chase infinite growth.
I already had a Plex server for films and stuff that weren't available on Netflix, but now I've gone full piracy.
And hilariously, more and more tools that don’t even require browsing the sites exist, just has jackett. Though I suppose that may just be considered a visit in this case.
Because the feds have jurisdiction only in a single country out of the roughly 200 that exist, and the pirate bay isn't from that one. Used to be Sweden, no idea where it lives these days.
It's no surprise that consumers are fed up with corporate greed! Every year, content becomes more expensive, because bigwigs need to increase the share price and appease shareholders. Let the house of cards crumble and seed, seed, seed!