Fun fact: pirating movies is legal in Switzerland, as long as you don't upload any pirated content.

Rookie numbers.

Wouldn’t be surprised to see that number go up this year as the quality of streaming services continues to plummet.

Let's rephrase it: one in ten adults ADMITTED to pirating content.

I would do it if I knew how.

the problem is that you usually torrent files, which does seed them and therefor is uploading them

as well, that's pretty much how it is everywhere, ie legal to download, unless something has changed that I'm not aware of

[removed]

UFCs can be pretty entertaining. They're just not $60 a pop entertaining.

I'm surprised it's so low. Sometimes I feel like the only dumb sucker who doesn't lie, cheat and steal as much as possible.

1 in 10 admitted to it ......

This also includes 65+ audience that likely has no idea what any of these questions even were and thats ~20% of the sample.

And there is an additional 5% that is "prefer not to say" which means yes.

Its probably 20-25% of the 18-64 population would reasonable assumptions who pirate, if not more

More like $80 for the PPV on top of the ESPN+ subscription. When something like 15% of the revenue goes to the fighters. Then the company wonders why people pirate it.

I wonder what that number would look like if they removed live sports from it. RSN's are a nightmare and I don't know a single hockey, baseball, soccer, or basketball fan that hasn't had to use a dicey internet stream at some point.

If you cap the age at 40, I would be blown away if the number were any less than 85%

If you’re just gonna start making up numbers, why not just go the full 100%

I don’t really see any reason to more than double the findings. Even here, on a subreddit dedicated to television populated by the demographics most likely to pirate, we have multiple people commenting they don’t know how.

Its more like the torrent protocol simply breaks any idea that a user is not "sharing" and copying the content, since inherent in torrents is that you have upload and download. There's a lot more to say, but yeah, lets not kid ourselves about how torrents work

[deleted]

Huzzah!

Not making up numbers, extrapolating already existing date.

65+ makes up about 20% of the entire 18+ US population, for which this study is based off. Assuming methodology is within reasonable ranges, you can assume about 20% of the sample is also 65+, with N=2000 they likely have a wide, representative, sample, as YouGov is a pretty reliable survey group.

When you take those "prefer not to say" on a basis of already asking about potentially vice or illegal actions which tend do underreport, you could always change it to a likert scale, and those "prefer not to say" are probably falling into a "likely, or highly likely" type bucket, which is good enough to make assumptions, and again, at least some, likely not insignificant number will give false responses of "no" or "not sure" even though they do pirate, you have to account for this error

So you add in all these sources of change, error, and bucket in likely users and remove about 20% of the population (65+), that were highly likely in the "No" category, and you would reasonable see a shift to the right slightly. Its very reasonable to assume 20%-25% may be more indicitive of the 18-64 range

Well, of course I know him. He's me.

[removed]

Wow, and just like that, the “if not more” has magically disappeared from your claim. Wonder what correcting the percentage of the adult population above 65 (16.9%) is gonna do to your numbers next.

UFC because they upped the price, made it annoying to get with the whole espn+ thing, and the cards are worse than they used to be. fuck em.

If not more is reasonable too, I kept it easy in the last comment that 20-25% is a reasonable assumption, but considering the error rate and type of survey, our estimates likely are on the lower bound than the middle or upper bound, so "if not more" in my comment indicates potential spot on the curve is on the left, but we don't know where, but the assumption is that we are not at the upper bound, and I provided a range estimate as well acknowledging error and unknown

FYI 16.9% is the 65+ total US population, in this study it was only looking at 18+, so you adjust the population and 65+ is around 20% of US 18+ population (its actually about 21%-22%, depending on what metrics you use, and I don't have the methodology of the survey, so using 20% as an assumption is fine, as it even underestimates, so teh comment about "if not more" is even more valid since i underestimated the "no" group)

Just out of curiosity, why are we excluding the 65+ population? Do you not consider them people or something.

65+ are far less likely to engage in digital priacy.

Here's a study example showing only 2% of 65+ are involved in digital piracy. In other words, a significant part of our "no" category is likely coming from this particular group. This also shows piracy leans towards younger audiences, for example in this survey, a 18-29 year old is 10x more likely to engage in piracy than a 65+ gives us a lot of indication that the 65+ audience isn't a major factor and we may be able to get better insight if we exclude them

Streaming is far more convenient than pirating. It's not really surprising that people opt to stream.

actually, you can limit seeding/uploading, sometimes to 0 depending on your client. The protocol does not implicitly force you to seed. But that's how they'll get you, if they do.

I'd be surprised if the number was that high tbh.

Why would you pirate something you believe has no quality?

Yes, if you remove the segments of the population least likely to pirate, the data will show pirating is more common. Exactly what “insights” are you attempting to find here? Are you just trying to pump the number up as high as possible?

People who pirate need to stop bragging about it lol.

Fun fact: no matter where you live piracy is not bad and anyone trying to convince you it's a crime is an ammoral dumbass.

It's more convenient right up until it isn't. When you were looking at two to four streaming services--say Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and HBO--it was convenient.

When you're looking down the barrel of eight to ten streaming services to get the same amount of content, there's going to be a sharp rise. Especially with services like HBO and the like now farming out a bunch of their content to smaller streamers.

This is how you do analysis. You look at the data and see what additional insights you can draw, you evaluate your original assumption and update it from the new data.

For example, we have what is likely an outlier group here (we actually probably have 2, 1 young 1 old). And you look at what the data looks like without the outlier. Does this provide more insight? Is there something unusual about the group you excluded that makes it necessary or not necessary to include. What do these separated data tell you now? Was this group just padding "no's"? Were they even relevant to ask or should we assume they never were going to be "yes's".

Its one step of many to the next iteration of analysis and research.

Additionally, its pretty common to bucket out 18-64 in a lot of research, especially things like media (media often uses 18-54, 55+, or 65+). Even moreso, we have a pretty good understanding of the 65+ group in media much more than younger groups in how they consume and spend on media (there's lots to say here but its getting deep technical).

In otherwords, there isn't juicing, what you want to do is see what the hell is happening, and adjusting the data to look at it from different angles is one step and seeing where things fit.

Hell, I pirate stuff I have a subscription for if its worth a rewatch.

Might disappear.

Dunno...we've been pirating software since the 1980's and Napster rolled out in late 90s. Before that we had the FTP sites. Some pirates are older than you may think. Can confirm at least 60 years old.

I linked a thing above that only about 2% of 65+ do digital piracy, so its not zero, but its a really small amount, give or take 0.005% of overall 18+ group. We'd expect over time as more people age into that group it will change, but this is where it currently stands.

And 8 are lying about not having. Anyone that is tech savvy enough to do a Google search probably considered piracy at some point instead of getting another subscription just to watch one thing.

Netflix: Let's make it 10 out of 10.

Well since Zaslav had his way a lot of great HBO content is only available on the high seas.

I can't believe people pay for television, especially considering cable tv is 60% advertisements.

I stopped paying for television around 2001. Being a pirate is better than early netflix and arrived 20 years earlier. It's superior in every way: every show ever, and much you can't even find on TV if you paid $500 a month for all the subs, available to you in a couple of minutes of d/ling. I don't understand television watching, I could never sit through ads, or paying multiple sub services.

Doing some napkin math, say 20 years of paying $50 a month for TV, oh .... saved me at least $12,000 dollars. I'll take the used car instead of the TV, thanks.

[deleted]

1 in 4 people around you do not pirate shit lol.

“This is how bernie can still win” vibes

Seems low

That seems VERY low considering how fragmented the streaming services have become. Don’t know the demo they used but if it’s predominantly over 35 then that stat makes more sense.

>It's more convenient right up until it isn't.

It is still more convenient tho.

Besides it's better than there are a bunch of streamers, it doesn't only force them to keep making amazing content but prevents a monopoly. Which would only lead to a sharp increase of prices or far less content... Likely to both.

Pirating can be dragging and slow.

At the end of the day, it doesn't really surprise me why less people are pirating now. it's not really worth my time, when I can just subscribe to whatever streamer I like to watch something in particular and then cancel and rinse and repeat.

It's peak convenience.

NBA is the worst with all the blacked out games and channel fragmentation, they make it complicated and expensive.

I mean, if people do not pay for television, soon enough you will have nothing to pirate. Better keep thanking they can afford to pay.

MLB enters the chat

I'm 46 and used to download games using a modem starting in the late 80s lol.

I stopped pirating games a long time ago because Steam is awesome and worth paying for.

Except for sports - sports streaming is a disaster.

And the streaming services politely ask for a list that admitted to it . . .

Speculation.

👍

👍

Only?

I’m too out of the downloading loop to know how to pirate any of those things, it sucks being in the 90 percent.

Yarrr we be after that electronic booty

the irony of using "ammoral"

a 65 yo was 40 when Napster launched, they understand the question.

adults. that's the demo.

yes the Reddit crowd is probably 90%, but many folks raised during the 80's or before were raised not to do this kind of thing.

Actually you can see a study below I posted, while I was making jest, in this recent study, only 2% of 65+ year olds pirated. Thats super low as you can see from the other age groups

🙋‍♂️

Same, but more so because I live in an area with fucky internet, it’s good to have back ups

Just found part 2 of the nevers online, didn’t see it on HBOMax, not even a trailer

Anyone who try to convince you to pay for shit is amoral?

The term pirating is so degrading. Let’s use the term borrowing.

I'm not poor, I have reasonable expectations and don't believe I deserve to watch everything I want, and I understand the leagues need for the RSNs... Yet, I've had to look for streams because the NHL Network is only available on a few platforms and none of those platforms have the value or the customer service to be anything but yucky.

...and with your help, we can make it 5 in 10!

More definitely did but won’t admit it.

What is stopping you in this instance

I'm a millennial and well over half my class wouldn't pirate stuff because of all the stories floating around of kids bricking the family computer due to the fun that was Limewire.

If you had a CD burner and could pirate, you could run a little hustle even.

[deleted]

I need to learn the seven seas for sports…

> If you had a CD burner and could pirate, you could run a little hustle even.

CD-rom/BR players in computers/laptops hasn't been a thing for over a decade.

Before the refund policy I would pirate to demo if I was unsure.

People now in their 40/50s are the ones who started the whole pirate scene with BBS's, they're the ones who are more likely to still pirate compared to the 15 - 30 age group.

My brother in law did this in school using my pc. He made cash, I got a growing music library from direct rips.

Pirating is way more convenient though. I can download a higher quality release faster than searching through a handfull of streaming sites.

Yeah, then it’s pulled while you’re mid season. Or worse they have season 1-3 but season 4-5 is exclusive to another service.

Are you kidding, those raised during the 80s are why anti piracy in the gaming industry became a thing.

Go out buy a game and a pack of blank cassettes, a few hrs with a duel tape deck and your mates all had a copy. Just had to remember to turn the volume way down or deafen yourself with binary screeching.

Then came code cyphers / word look up in manuals etc. Tho those were quickly beaten as usually there was only a limited selection of challenges which wasn’t difficult to determine with patients and a pen.

rookie numbers

as long as there is no advertisements, i will stream, but the moment there will be advertisements in series or movies i will go to high seas. i absolutely hate advertisements. that is what ruined movie watching and series on cable tv. i disliked it when i was young and dislike it when i am older.

even for sports you already pay these expensive prices to watch sports and still we get fucking advertisements!

It takes me about 10 seconds to pirate an episode

I pirate because the actual native streaming version is somehow almost always worse than the pirate encode. And it’s not because I have slow internet. Their service is just fucked.

You don’t have a properly setup seedbox / download machine but I have a one click interface for all the services mentioned.

An antenna has served me well. I have a Tablo that puts the broadcast on my network where I can watch off connected devices. It has a DVR, and there are programs that allow you to take the shows off the DVR and move them to wherever you'd like. I also use commercial removing software before putting the show on a Plex server.

Everything I paid for up front. The only monthly subscription available is the guide data to the Tablo. I bought the lifetime option when I got the device. It's more than paid for itself already.

The only issue is that there are fewer and fewer quality suites in standard broadcast TV. I've got a great catalogue of NFL games though.

Because it's not worth the asking price?

[deleted]

How is it not?

Everyone I knew at one point pirated music, everyone. Even my dad. Then Spotify came out and now everyone has access to basically any song ever for a decent fee.

The visual media side is the exact opposite of this. They want to pick and choose what you can see, charge more for it, then complain when they find out someone wants to watch a random show from the 90's that they have refused to out out on physical or digital and they removed from their streaming platform after a few weeks. And then they raise the rates again. My Directv Stream account alone has nearly TRIPLED in price since I first signed up.

1 of 10 admits, 3 of 10 did it, and 7 of 10 asked their kid/cousin/sibling to do it for them because they don't know how.

Will the TV industry still exists in 20 years? Looks like an inevitability that more people will be pirating, to the point it becomes unsustainable to produce new shows anymore. This is depressing.

[deleted]

> Might disappear.

Already backed up 30 Rock and IASIP right after some episodes got needlessly yanked while the seeds were still fresh. There's an early American Dad episode where the family accidentally shows up to a party in blackface that's still on hulu to this veryest of the days, so that'll be a "gone bye-bye" here real pretty soon. It's not fucking enough that the people directly responsible for Floyd's death has been charged and punished, but WE have to pay the price, too? Nuh-uh, fuck that all the way off. So just in case we all need to get punished again for daring to let a guy try to buy cigarettes with counterfeit money, I'm gonna have to buy some more storage devices to back up American Dad and Family Guy, too.

Surprised that Tyre Nichols's death didn't result in more even shows similarly taken off the air that could have possibly tertiarily contributed to it in even the slightest way. My guesses would have been: Snowfall, Oz, and The Wire. What's everyone else's guesses?

Not to sound naive, but how does one go about becoming a Pirate? What's the equipment or w.e I need,? I'm tired of paying all these streaming services.

well I pay $149 for the MLB package yet I get blacked out games. Don't black out games, you won't have this issue.

This also includes sports, mind. Which is heavily overpriced.

This is what they do not understand. Provide a service at a reasonable price that meets expectations and pirating is reduced drastically.

I hope Bally's goes kaput so MLB can take the rights and end blackouts once and for all

just because they don't do it doesn't mean they don't know what it is.

at it's core pirating is really about entitlement. folks that grew up in the 80's or earlier were raised a little differently than the 'everyone gets a trophy' generations.

That's really not true though.

It's not like a multi-billion dollar industry is just going to disappear.

1 in 10 admitted to a criminal offense.

What a useless poll.

i believe the number actually. even though it's not really hard at face value, i think we really overestimate how many people will even seek out information on how to do it and also have the technical skills to set it up and do it. add in the fact that most people pay for convenience in every aspect of their lives as well and i expect the number to be real low

If the overwhelming majority of people like OP above me were to stop consuming legally and opted for piracy?

Yeah, ofc it'd disappear.

Not really.

For decades television profited without directly charging consumers (mainly through advertisements and merchandise). The industry would find alternate ways to generate revenue that don’t rely on charging customers directly for content

Advertisement in tv rely on eyes to watch it. If there are no eyes, how would it be profitable?

Wasn't just this posted recently?

That companies are seeking (legal action even?) Reddit posts/comments about ppl who share pirating stories/tips, etc?

Filmmakers Request Identities of Reddit Users to Aid Piracy Lawsuit

Yeah I like having everything in one place, so if I like a show on, say, Prime, I’ll usually watch it there first (because if I like a show and have legal access I want the service to know I watched it) and then download it later so I have it on my Plex server with every other show and movie I like and may want to re-watch at some point.

Removing episodes that have blackface when they’re poking fun at the concept of blackface is so stupid. Always Sunny in particular is mocking the stupid characters who find it acceptable and constantly pointing out that it’s racist. Same goes with RDJ in Tropic Thunder. That’s a brilliant use of blackface to poke fun at both the absurd nature of method acting and also Hollywood in general.

I live in Chicago and pay for cable. There have been a few times this season where I haven't been able to watch the Chicago Blackhawks play hockey because their games were locked behind an ESPN+ subscription and not on any TV channels whatsoever which is insane to me. Of course people are still going to pirate certain things.

Given the constant rising cost of cable over the past few decades, them increasing the amount of commercials, the fragmentation of streaming services and their various catalog of shows it is not surprising.

And rather than spending money on an attempt to provide an affordable comprehensive easy-to-use service they instead are becoming more consumer hostile with preventing VPN, password sharing, and DMCA take downs and court cases.

They'll continue to try to build in watchdogs into computers (I'm looking at you Windows 11 hardware requirements) to enforce licensing issues, but that's a losing battle.

The number of people pirating is just going to increase as pirating becomes easier and easier with Kodi integration, home streaming devices, etc.

Maybe someday some upstart will embrace the new economy rather than fight it. iTunes was a huge hit because it did just that. And seeming indomitable Spotify and the like managed to embrace it even more and be successful.

But then business dinosaurs fight for their lives the only way they know how until eventually their species is gone. And nobody will miss them.

>I hope Bally's goes kaput so MLB can take the rights and end blackouts once and for all

I think you're going to be disappointed. Whomever ends up owning Bally is going to have the rights.

NBA blackout games are crap. Why can’t I watch my LOCAL NBA team’s game unless it’s a nationally broadcast game is crazy

MLB is possibly going to just purchase them and remove the blackout

RSN's are dying friend

>MLB is possibly going to just purchase them and remove the blackout > >RSN's are dying friend

Could already be dead but the leagues don't really trust the fans to pay what the local teams rights are worth.

Fuck the deadbeats who steal.

But that’s like half the content on Reddit!

Way to brag about being a deadbeat. If there weren’t good people who paid then you’d have nothing to steal.

No, pirates are the ones who need to grow the fuck up.

MLB has been one of the most frustrating. Back in the day we traded logins with friends from out of state just so we could watch local games.

It based off your credit card zip code. They’d use ours to watch local Marlins games because we were in Michigan. And we’d use their login to watch the Tigers since they were in Florida.

shit i did that hustle in school with music

Just have a good adblock on your phone or laptop and use soap2day or bflix. It’s so painless you can watch anything.

I airplay from my phone to my tv

your post implied that people are capable of independent thought and not emotional posturing. Look at how many people protested the Puerto rican day episode on Seinfeld then even admitting they had not seen it yet because it was automatically implied to be racist while never viewing the context for themselves. Not to mention how many shows today continue to be overly racist but so long as the character is POC it gets a pass. A lot of people claiming they want jstice and equality but seeking their pound of flesh in the process.

I don't know. Even when I know I can get away with it I'd rather go without than feel dishonest

Out of curiosity, what are the ethical guidelines that most govern your choices?

Yes!

Ya I believe that number for sure. I'm a 20 something that isn't an idiot when it comes to tech, but I hardly ever even try to pirate anything. Can't remember the last time I did. If I can't get it on YTTV or one of the streaming services I have, I just don't bother. Forget people my parents age.

That's somehow lower than what I would have expected.

One of us! One of us! One of us!

People even born later than that too. I'm 28 and none of my friends pirate anything really. I know it's anecdotal, but it's not like every young person out there is pirating.

College hockey enters the chat

That's because the executives just care about the bottom line.

whoah BLM and chatter about racism? Then it's either "better safe than sorry, this could be bad, even though nobody is talking about it" or "if we do this people will like us! We'll appear anti-racist!" Alternatively "people'll get mad, it'll boost us and we lose the potential risk of hosting the episode. Win win." There's no ideology involved.

And then there's the Fawlty Towers thing which was obviously shady as hell when you look into it.

and in the end you just get all the BLM and anti-racist activists getting the blame even though they're confused about the episode delistings too.

In general, I don't know I have a rigorous ruleset. I know people that use fake IDs for discounts, or lie for their benefit. My work gave 8 hours of recovery time for people if they had a bad reaction to the vaccine. I didn't get a bad reaction so I missed out on skipping 3 days of work.

For pirating specifically, I've seen the harm it does to artist. Studios have shut down and careers have been harmed because no one can bother to pay for the things they enjoy. Why are people so entitled to the product other other peoples labors?

​

When someone charges for their services, and I take their services without paying I've cheated them.

​

If a street performer says they do a song and dance for $5 bucks, then I refuse to pay them, I can't turn around and say "I'm not stealing because you didn't lose anything physical, gotcha sucker"

Is wage theft not real stealing because no physical objects are deprived?

A cd only cost .10 to make. Are you only stealing .10 worth when you shoplift it? Does insurance on expensive sports trading cards only cover the cost of paper? Most of the value of goods in intangible.

​

When I sell something I don't' want a buyer to help themselves whenever they think I charge too much.

[deleted]

South African cricket ball left the chat

Link? Also that does not seem actionable if it is just words

I don't think they were referring to recent times.

Doesn't mean they know how, or have ever wanted to pirate. My parents certainly don't.

[deleted]

Filmmakers Request Identities of Reddit Users to Aid Piracy Lawsuit

Not saying it's happening now, or if it will.

But they're trying according to "Torrent Freak"

(Added link to my orignal comment as well.)

Sorry 4 the oversight & thus "just words" vs subpoena.

I bought a free trial on some random service for the Super Bowl and then immediately cancelled it after the game. Does that count?

A pirates life for me!

They're talking about limewire and you think they're talking about currently?

The other nine need help

[removed]

Jack Sparrow All the Way!

you think the entire ipad generation knows how to pirate? i was the only one out of my roughly 30 friends in college who even knew how to torrent, let alone shit like setting up a plex server for your own content

CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow

all the dumbass reddit boomers in this thread really need to understand piracy doesn’t do shit. it can even help sales if someone , for whatever reason, CANT pirate something or watch it conveniently, do you think they’re going to pay for it or watch something else?

Yeah, if MLB buys the rights and removes blackouts, they are going to jack the price up of MLB.tv a lot.

Genuinely dont understand how Dana can act so happy every post ppv, talking about how much money they made via buys and the gate, then keep raising the price.

Actually I do, them hookers and coke dealers dont pay themselves.

Personally I generally prefer to pay to keep it simple.... but if they make paying too difficult which is quite common.... then I will take it for free no problem.

Because the entirety of human existence owes itself to the fact that ideas aren't physical objects. Copying them, telling other people, and being part of a community of information is what seperates us from animals.

Pretending that you can steal watching a movie makes you dumber than a monkey.

Yes, in fact, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism.

It's especially well defined as amoral when the thing you're "consuming" isn't consumable, costs no time money or effort to copy, and the people who had the most impact on making it aren't making the money from the people who are rent seeking on it anyways.

The fact that I have well defined and self examined morals is....ironic?

Good lord

What's wrong, don't have any actual counterpoint so you have to feign offense to my completely reasonable response?

>Yes, in fact, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism.

This is the "you critique capitalism but you use an iphone meme".

You know that meme is making fun of you, right?

I know. That meme is stupid however. Which is my exact point.

>Yes, in fact, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism.

As opposed to taking my money by force through threat of imprisonment and giving it to someone else, which is totally ethical.

You just described capitalism.

Because you don't understand the dialectical underpinning?

How so?

Well the having money part is pretty key.