Another Proper response to Piracy, Netflix.

Some may remember this thread.

The proper way to deal with Pirates, How Iron Maiden found its worst music pirates.


In which Iron Maiden, used Piracy data to take their concerts to places they never would of, and as a result sold out every show where Piracy was most prevalent.

Well its seems Iron Maiden is not the only forward thinking entrepreneur out there who sees Pirates for what they are, Not the enemy of Profit but simply FANS who are RAVENOUS for content.

How Clever, Netflix Monitors BitTorrent To Purchase Shows

This is a clever little piece of lateral thinking: Netflix monitors what is being illegally downloaded on BitTorrent and other pirate sites in order to work out what shows they ought to try and purchase.

According to Netflix Vice President of Content Acquisition.

“With the purchase of series, we look at what does well on piracy sites,” Merryman told Tweakers.

One of the shows that Netflix acquired the rights to in the Netherlands is Prison Break, since it is heavily pirated locally. “Prison Break is exceptionally popular on piracy sites,” Merryman says.

In the day and age where a Fan of a particular Hollywood property can get a demand letter for thousands of dollars from the RIAA its nice to see a company finding a way not to turn fans into a Criminal.

BUT use that Data to turn a profit, instead of fearing Piracy, Netflix has found a way to render is service profitable in the face of such threats.

If only the rest of Hollywood could take a page from Netflix and Iron Maidens book.

There are a lot of people that would purchase content legally if they could, but sometimes resort to piracy when that content isn't available by any other means.

Well...it says it acquired the rights to Prison Break in the Netherlands...that would suggest to me more that they are going to go after the pirates since they now own the rights to it. It is a bit different I would think since anyone can sign up for an online service and watch the show.

Not sure this is going to go over for them as well as something like a live Maiden show would.

reply to post by benrl


That is what you call.



They must be D&D players.

Now with net neutrality being killed, Say good bye to piracy and online sharing.

Foreign link sharing sites that are untouchable to Hollywood just became touchable. They will purposely provide subpar service to known websites serving online streams and links. Bittorent will become slowtorent.

This is correct, Sir. Thanks for pointing it out - and reminding me and everyone that Netflix itself is a correct response to Piracy - they identified a need for streaming videos on-demand, and met it.

Positive attitude, positive problem-solving. Wealth can be made by helping solve people's problems. Companies that try to gain wealth by hurting people are doomed to fail, for think about it, people are paying them to be shafted.

interupt42
Now with net neutrality being killed, Say good bye to piracy and online sharing.

Foreign link sharing sites that are untouchable to Hollywood just became touchable. They will purposely provide subpar service to known websites serving online streams and links. Bittorent will become slowtorent.

Interrupt, do you think that the lack of net neutrality is going to mean a clamp down on torrent traffic?

Junkheap
There are a lot of people that would purchase content legally if they could, but sometimes resort to piracy when that content isn't available by any other means.

I agree, I used to do that all the time because the ease of access was so much better - for anime, for example, I could get the original Japanese series with sub-titles handmade by fans. That's just one - a LONG time ago with Lime Wire - it was the first real way to make mix cds. And look, it honestly affected the market in a positive way - I Tunes came from the idea.

reply to post by darkbake


For sure removing net neutrality will highly impact the effectiveness of online pirated content. It already happened in a small scale. Comcast purposely slowed down bittorent traffic back in 07 but got in trouble because of the net neutrality laws. Now those laws are gone so what do you think they are going to do again.

news.cnet.com...

news.cnet.com...

In 2008
The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday finally released the text of its 3-2 ruling saying Comcast violated the law when throttling BitTorrent transfers, marking the first time any broadband provider has been found to violate Net neutrality rules.

Piracy is a big part of reversing net neutrality . They aren't able to easily prosecute a server hosted in Russia that is providing dynamically generated links to pirated streams. They will use net neutrality as a more efficient tool of dealing with pirated sources.

Not to many people will likely wait to watch or download a movie online at 56K speeds.

Vasa Croe
Well...it says it acquired the rights to Prison Break in the Netherlands...that would suggest to me more that they are going to go after the pirates since they now own the rights to it. It is a bit different I would think since anyone can sign up for an online service and watch the show.

Not sure this is going to go over for them as well as something like a live Maiden show would.

Actually as it turns out when people are given an affordable alternative to piracy they are more likely to purchase the content. This is largely because online pirates are not a single group with aligned goals. People pirate entertainment for various reasons. The Corporate Media complex is having an extremely difficult time accepting the business model they perfected in the 70's and 80's is dying and will no longer work.

And it is only a matter of time before the gifted writer, director and CGI artist meet and start producing and publishing their works directly online. It will eventually move us back to the golden age of television with hundreds of small local markets producing their own entertainment. It has already become more prevalent in the last decade, with the cable channels developing their own original series. The world is thirsting for quality art driven by artistic desire and vision.

Sekoh,

P2P was never the demon it was made out to be.
The big corperations view of P2P is much like the U.N.'s version of AGW.
I'll never turn in my peg leg and parrot.

-Pirate Bay Forever-

reply to post by Eryiedes


I think that deserves an avatar that includes a pirate, peg leg and parrot.

reply to post by benrl


I enjoy having netflix as a entertainment provider...nice move

reply to post by chrismarco


Netflix has it's faults don't be mistaken they are now experimenting with price tiers in some markets to see how much they can gouge you for. But on the plus side they do react quickly when such moves go south on them.

reply to post by benrl


I get no change out of about $60 to take the missus and kids to the flicks.

I'd part with that to get the HD download version I can watch at home - at the same time it's released at the movie theatre.

As it stands, they now get none of my cash, and I still get the HD version, albeit a little later than the release date - sometimes.

darkbake
reply to post by Eryiedes

 

I think that deserves an avatar that includes a pirate, peg leg and parrot.

Done and done.....

Has anyone considered that Netflix is often marketing very heavily towards the blogosphere and the media and that this is just another example of that? I keep reading these overwhelmingly positive descriptions of Netflix and their service, but is it really all that different from previous models?

We're not switching an out dated unfair model from decades ago with a new shiny model where artists ride upon clouds being rewarded with rainbows of justly deserved accolades and money whilst audiences drink their content from fairly priced golden streams ... we're actually just going back to the same model as before after briefly considering a handful of other options. A subscription based gate keeper.

I just can't help but feel that the use of piracy statistics for market research is nothing original or particularly valiant. Netflix isn't the ultimate evil, but I think we do have to look at it for what it is. By claiming to be a champion for the consumer, by pushing the idea that film companies have no excuse for poor distribution, they are just furthering their agenda to bend artist's arms behind their back to use the service by popular demand. Netflix do seem to prefer receiving films through distributors they deal with regularly, so they aren't a champion of the artist on that front.

It might seem like a little dog forcing the big dogs to catch up, but I'm not certain the end result will be positive for artists or consumers in the long run.

This is what happened to me, short version..

Dissatisfied with crappy cams made in theatres, thought I could do better, lol

Began camming movies in theatre, about 10 in total, complete crap, harder then looks.

The second I put the first one on the net a private company working for MPAA took notice and began downloading from me in swarm, only guy with 100%.

When download complete gave everything to MPAA who forwarded it to FBI who gave to RCMP who began to investigate within DAYS. While getting warrants to find my IP, Canada sent local commissionaires out to theatres in my area to catch me in the act, one was a friend of mine I was giving downloaded movies to, lol, but after not to long cops came knocking and took my video camera, 2nd guy in Canada to be charged for distributing copyright crap, something like that

ANYWAY..

So, I cannot believe that after all they went through to go after stupid old me, that I can still download a secret life of Walter Mitty screener with Ellen's name on it, I'm not complaining, it's great, but WTF! It's gotta be some kind of conspiracy...

All of those big companies that claim to lose billions in losses due to piracy are only using that story as a way to claim a huge exemption on their taxes each year.. The whole thing with the RIAA is based on the same thing, they redefine what is actually happening, so that it fits their business model, and keeps them getting grants and the board members get to keep their big houses and their luxury cars.. I'm sure it is safe to say there is also a lot of graft involved with the RIAA and political kickbacks taking place.. Time to go after them rather than pirates.

Nice to see people thinking ahead of the curve, rather than sticking with the ethically flawed model of doing business.

all those big companies are rich enough already... but more to the point they're wildly greedy as well. if they all had their films available for streaming for a single dollar/pound, i'm damn sure they'd make way more than they do at the box office. greed rules the world

Good idea. Never knew this. However net neutrality is going to throw this all for a loop.