Of course getting real data here is very difficult but I really do feel its becoming very easy to be a pirate.
I can only share my anecdotes that I see right now - if I type in “iptv” to the main e-commerce websites here in Thailand (Lazada, Shopee, tiktok) all have hundreds of listings and thousands of monthly sales. Iptv piracy tech UX is very similar to Plex or Jellyfin tho the latter is more expensive to run and more legally challenging but the UX from the customers pov is identical. Buy a subscription, get account details and app install instructions, connect and watch. So UX is not the barrier here imo.
As a ancient pirate this does worry me a bit as it’s becoming too easy and corporate services are really pushing the consumers which brings way too much attention to this.
pulsewidth@lemmy.world 5 days ago
I think you underestimate people’s drive for a bargain.
This was a decade back, but the satellite paytv system here was not cheap. $50/m for base, up to $150/m for full. A technical crew worked out how to pirate it by hooking the verification card up to a dongle on a PC and sending the verification requests from each set-top box over a VPN back to their master device. They sold access to the system for about $100 (for the dongle & setup) and then $10-20/month for full access to the Fox-based service. Went on for years before loose lips sunk the ship, and their were thousands of users when it got busted. No marketing, no Internet presense, just word of mouth “I know a guy”.
The modern Internet-based streaming pirate services that people can buy cheap devices for on ebay preconfigured, and pay $5-10/m for access to all movies and TV? Cheaper and faster access, all online, nobody has to visit your home. Everything is easier and the barrier of entry is lower.
If Netflix and others don’t stop being so greedy, they’ll be reminded that people only play by the rules when the terms are reasonable.