Imlisanen Jamir
We live in the golden age of entertainment. And the pot of gold seems limitless for production and distribution companies. However, consumers these days are drowning in choice; so much so, that it is actually turning the tide on piracy.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Piracy was meant to follow the path set by the music industry where technological change initially enabled new forms of copyright infringement, then spurred rejuvenation, settling into a new equilibrium.
Initially, when streaming platforms took over the global content consumption market, many who pirated content due to the lack of accessibility chose to subscribe to these platforms. Even those who once swore never to let go of their favourite torrent clients began to waver from their principles.
However, streaming platforms, who once built their enterprises on supposed ideals of easy accessibility, began to do what large corporations always do— get greedy. From a handful of such platforms in the beginning, the scene is now filled with dozens of similar set ups that have their own monopoly on franchises and new content. Couple this with the current increasing rate of subscription prices; and the pirate flags across the web are now waving stronger than ever.
Data company MUSO, which tracks piracy trends across various media categories, in its recent report revealed that India alone records nearly 10 billion visits to piracy sites yearly.
This happens as people decide that the juice is no longer worth the squeeze. To the people who believe this is a new phenomenon, there is nothing new about this. Different cable companies would bundle a limited amount of different channels. Restricting the number of choices unless people forked up more money. Now the same thing is happening to these streaming services. There are more streaming services and each one has a dwindling amount of content. It is no surprise that torrenting is increasing in popularity.
People do not want to subscribe to 5 different services just to access the content. Most people rely on online services that they have very little control over. That means these platform can easily restrict your presence. Despite fancy words on protection of intellectual property and the rights of creatives, the anti piracy lobby worldwide has always been about protecting the revenue streams of large companies.
So, Before you open up a copy of BitTorrent and start to feel the guilt of “stealing” content, Just remember, as these companies realize that their bottom line is being threatened, they will inevitably make changes to improve their services. Which will, of course, benefit everyone in the long run.
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