I’ve never known so many shutdowns inside 2 weeks as the last two have been. Even websites pirating manga were shut down. What happened? What’s with this massive legal wave of shutdowns, and why now?

  • Unruffled [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.comM
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    3 months ago

    [In 2024] More than 80% of global online piracy can be attributed to illegal streaming services.

    - https://dataprot.net/statistics/piracy-statistics/

    I think this is the main reason. Pirate streaming services are now directly competing with Netflix, Disney+, and other streaming platforms (aka the media industrial complex, or MIC), and they offer more content for a more affordable price (or for free). Pirate streaming is also very accessible to a mainstream audience, who are already used to the concept. So, the MIC regards them as the biggest threat preventing them from jacking up prices even more, because people will naturally move to a more afforable option, if one exists.

    So the main focus of the MIC is on killing off pirate streaming right now. Usenet and torrents have proven to be more robust piracy options but they also have a higher barrier to entry for mainstream audiences, so are always going to be more niche than streaming. But no doubt they are still tring to kill off usenet and torrent piracy - it’s just a lower threat to corporate profits, so wont get as much attention.