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Comment by leoedin | Hacker News Reader

I can only speak for myself - but the convenience and relatively low cost of Netflix killed piracy for me. It wasn’t really a moral reason, or a fear of prosecution. But Netflix is truly easy, and the cost isn’t significant.

Spotify did the same for music piracy. I just stopped bothering with files.

I think as others have said, the increased balkanisation of the tv streaming world might change that.

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Netflix has the worst quality and selection that I've seen.

I'm about to pick up piracy again so I can watch good shows that I like

It does now. Back when it was the only streaming service and all of the different studio's content was on it, it was the best fight against piracy. Now that the streaming ecosystem is so fragmented requiring subscription upon subscription, Netflix' selection has atrophied to the realm of mediocrity with the occasional gem like every other studio out there.

I can absolutely see where piracy surges again as people fight back against the onslaught of YASS (yet another streaming service).

I think Gabe was entirely right, it is in the end service problem. And services can be wrong at multiple ways. For a moment video content got it right. But this was naturally unstable equilibrium. Free market capitalism is naturally greedy so everyone wants their own piece of the pie and not just give it away for someone else.

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