The New Trend in Streaming: Piracy

I didn’t realize how great I had it in 2019. I could stream Friends, The Office, and a bunch of Disney movies on Netflix. A single subscription gave me hours of content, and I could watch shows and movies I loved.

Like all other good things in life, they come to an end. These shows were among the most popular on Netflix, and some people thought viewers were getting too good of a deal. Who felt this way? HBO Max, Peacock, and Disney+. So instead of a single subscription to Netflix, customers will need to triple their subscriptions.

Or maybe they won’t. The whole streaming thing might be getting too expensive and convoluted. But there is a way to watch every show and movie you want without breaking the bank. The only problem? It isn’t exactly legal.

The Rise, Fall, and Renewal of Old School Piracy

The early-mid 00’s was a great time to use the internet to steal. Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing was a come method of attaining media. Every time one service would shut down, another would launch. In 2006, 70% of internet traffic was dedicated to P2P with BitTorrent being the biggest name.

By 2011 P2P was just 19% of web traffic and Netflix streaming would surpass P2P during peak hours. By 2015, P2P would only account for 3% of web traffic. The trend seemed…