Can Netflix Kill Illegal Downloads?

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Analysis: TorrentFreak suggests legal movie streaming will reduce the illegal kind.
By Kevin Fogarty, ITworld




File-sharing news and advocacy site TorrentFreak asked earlier this week whether the growing popularity of legally-streamed movies from Netflix would kill illegal movie downloads in the U.S.

The story asked whether eliminating lack of availability as a justification for people to download movies illegally, citing Netflix membership numbers that have increased to 22.8 million and is grew by 3.3 million during the first quarter compared to 1.7 million during Q1 2010.

Netflix' streaming service is so easy to use compared to the hunt for complete copies of the movie you want, avoiding malware, mislabeled porn, or adware, that there isn't much reason to pirate a movie you can find online.

Good thought, but piracy is more complicated than that, according to Wired, which delineates the reasons, channels and types of content that make up the biggest part of the illegal file-sharing market to make clear Netflix can only take a very small bite out of it.

You still can't get good PC games free on Netflix, or anywhere near the breadth of movies and other content available on Pirate Bay at any given time, let alone the other software, viruses, developer kits, hacking tools and MP3 music files, for example.

iTunes, Amazon and a million other paid-digital music stores did a lot to cut down music piracy by making it possible to buy the music you want for negligible amounts of cash. Netflix is doing the same for a small subset of the movies available online.

The quality of what you get through the paid services is a lot better than you usually get illegally, it's a lot simpler, safer both digitally and legally, and much, much easier on your conscience.

It's not going to quash the pirates. Any more than automated license-checking services that install automatically with commercial applications eliminated abuse of those licenses.

Netflix, at least, doesn't reduce piracy by pissing people off.

[samarchepas]

Unless they stop putting movies that were good 20 years ago...NOPE (Was a member for a month...didn't like it)

[Godfather]

Yeah Netflix in Canada is horrid. Ancient, terrible movies. The TV shows start at season 2 or 3 I took my free month and then canceled too.



And it doesn't help that there's only one movie rental place left on my part of the city. Four have gone in the last 18 months.

[samarchepas]

They have a good concept...but not enough stuff (or recent)..BTW Netflix Canada and USA is pretty much the same thing (we had Netflix on consoles 3 weeks before the US...)

[Teh One Who Knocks]

I've been with Netflix for like 5 years, they have a LOT more stuff offered in the US than they do in Canada

[Godfather]

Ya man... Netflix Canada and Netflix USA are drastically different. Waaaaay more shit down there. They had to launch up here with a limited selection

Just go on the US site, then the Canadian. Soooo different

Comedy US Netflix: Easy A, Hot Tub Time Machine, The Other Guys,

Canada: Without a Paddle: Natures Calling (direct to DVD)

[Hal-9000]

I certainly hope not

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Im a fan of netflix, the problem with the lack of streaming content pisses me off. I know its due to the studios being retarded assholes. Why can I order the DVD and wait 3 days, but I cant stream it now. They are pulling the same shit as the music industry and we see where that got them. But, I think as time goes on it will only get better as more content is licensed.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Im a fan of netflix, the problem with the lack of streaming content pisses me off. I know its due to the studios being retarded assholes. Why can I order the DVD and wait 3 days, but I cant stream it now. They are pulling the same shit as the music industry and we see where that got them. But, I think as time goes on it will only get better as more content is licensed.

I love Netflix too....I mailed my DVD's this morning and I'll have my next ones on Wednesday. Hard to complain about that.

I don't use the streaming much just because I dunno what it would do to my bandwidth usage since I have a 250 gig/month cap.

And you're right, all these new regulations by the movie studios aren't Netfix's fault, I think they do a hell of a job and very reasonably priced. If it came to the point where Netflix had everything right away like the pirates do, I wouldn't have any problem getting all my stuff through them.

[Godfather]

We also have Shaw on Demand... our cable provider rents movies out over the PVR box (basically the same idea as Netflix for your digital cable) at a fairly high price (5.99 for regular or 7.99 for HD)

It has good movies, relatively soon after their release. The biggest problem is that they don't carry movies indefinitely. I'm not sure how they work out the timeline, but there are only a dozen or so movies in any given category.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Yeah, Comcast has the new releases On Demand as well, but they are a bit pricey (similar to what GF posted).

[Godfather]

I think they're actually a much bigger reason places like Blockbuster have been hurting so badly up here

People will pay the extra buck and take the limited selection to not have to pick up and return the hard copy of the movie....

Just need to find a crack to access US Netflix up here

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Not really sure what the idea behind the limited availability of stuff is with Netflix Canada. I wonder if it's buried in some obscure NAFTA regulation or something

[PorkChopSandwiches]

If On Demand would rent movies for .99 like I can get at redbox then I would use that, they are fuckin high charge 5 -6 bucks

[Godfather]

Not really sure what the idea behind the limited availability of stuff is with Netflix Canada. I wonder if it's buried in some obscure NAFTA regulation or something

Not sure exactly but it has to do with licensing restrictions... guess you have to go and get them all over again for renting in Canada and it's too hard or taking a long time