Our group is researching the effects of streaming services on society
from a few different perspectives. We most closely want to investigate
the prevalence of video piracy, especially in regards to the rise in
popularity of Netflix and other online streaming services. Our main
ideas are: firstly, why piracy is becoming more normalized in society,
and secondly, the motives behind video pirating sites and servers.
So far, our survey
garnered about 52 answers.
Streaming Services
The majority of users have access to Amazon Prime Video and Netflix
streaming services (62.5% and 85.4%, respectively), and a third of
responders have Hulu. This indicates the frequency with which people
chose to watch tv or movies online, as opposed to relying solely on movie
theaters or cable television networks. 78.4% of people reported that
before these platforms reached mainstream audiences, they had relied on
their television providers for access to movies and television.
Before having access to digital streaming services, 51.8% of people
reported watching for four or more hours each week, and only 17.2% reported
watching for more than 9 hours. After having access to digital streaming
services, 59.7% of respondents watched four or more hours of digital
content a week, and 38.5% of respondents reported consuming 9 or more
hours per week. This stark increase in the concentration of people that
consumed television or movies can be partially attributed to the constant
availability of similar movies, or sequential episodes online, as opposed
to the tradition of needing to wait for other material to be available.
This is concerning, because excessive media consumption has been shown
to have detrimental health effects, and the accessibility of online
content seems to be perpetuating those habits (“Emotional and Health
Implications of Binge Watching Streaming TV,” 2018).
Watching Habits
Notably, the same survey-takers estimated that 76.9% of people watch
four or more hours of media per day, which is far higher than the reported
numbers. This could be indicative of a larger culture of people
communicating about their media consumption habits, giving others the
impression that they watch more than they actually do. These conversations
could be generated by a social pressure to be “caught up on” the latest
episode of a certain show, or centered around recently-released movies.
This social aspect of media is also reflected in how 71.4% of responders
usually choose what to watch based on the recommendations of their
friends, rather than the recommendation algorithms of the streaming
sites they use. However, as we sought to investigate in the following
line of questioning, these motives could also lead someone to engage
in piracy.
Piracy
71.4% of our survey-takers reported that they tend to watch Netflix alone,
as opposed to 45% of people who usually illegally stream content alone.
That the majority of people who legally stream content are alone and the
majority of those streaming media illegally are with others could be a
result of a sense of distributed accountability, or people feeling less
guilty about criminal activity if others are also engaging alongside them.
Significantly, only 80% of respondents report never having suffered
negative repercussions (i.e. computer viruses, or legal action) for
illegally accessing media content online, which could incentivize continued
illegality. However, 70% of survey-takers reported that they preferred
to watch Netflix, instead of pirating movies or television, and 57.1%
preferred to watch movies in a theater, as opposed to at home. Therefore,
although the resources to stream content online and access content
illegally are expanding alongside technological advancements, the
majority of people still prefer healthier and legal avenues of media
consumption.
“Why is piracy becoming so normalized in society?”
Streaming services have become immensely successful in society -- but at
a great cost. We have access to many services already (Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now,
Spotify, Apple Music, Disney+, Apple TV+, Quibi, CrunchyRoll, the Criterion Channel,
YouTube Red, Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Music, Tidal, CBS All Access, Crackle,
Sling, PlayStation Vue, ESPN+... to name a few), and even more to come. With each
service costing around $5 to $15 a month, paying for all of them would result in a
price similar to a cable TV subscription -- exactly what customers wanted to avoid
years ago!
However, people can get around the priciness by pirating their favorite movies
and TV shows, usually from torrenting sites.
To start off, we’ll explain a few terms. BitTorrent is a communication
protocol that allows users to quickly transmit and download data and files.
Torrent files can be basically anything, from movies, songs, games,
or applications. They are usually downloaded from more than one server at a
time -- usually from seeds, or a user who provides files for peers
to download. Trackers are provided in torrent files, holding IP lists
of active seeds to download parts of the file from. Torrenting files isn’t
illegal, unless you’re torrenting copyrighted material.
A torrenting site indexes torrent files, but doesn't hold the actual files.
Instead, you download torrent files, and the trackers in it connect you
to several seeds where you get pieces of the file and put them together.
(In other words, you download “directions” to a file, rather than the
actual file.) Government agents do look around torrent sites and networks,
but very few people actually get caught. There are also multiple ways you
can retain anonymity while torrenting files.