Not too long ago, torrents were the go-to channel for pirated content, but streaming has recently emerged as a popular alternative that is threatening the concept of downloading and sharing. Beyond the surface argument of what is more convenient and preferable lies the interesting conundrum of how each actually affects piracy: streaming largely depends on torrenting to thrive, yet amusingly, streaming platforms are the bigger targets due to their similarity with popular services such as Netflix. Thanks to Kyle for this one.



Users of streaming sites will correctly argue that with no uploading, they are much safer than their torrenting counterparts. Torrent users, on the other hand, note that their participation in uploading helps to provide content to others. Torrent users are effectively a plus to the piracy ecosystem, while streamers (if we refer to them in torrent terms) are merely leechers. There’s a whole generation of streaming consumers coming through today who literally have no idea about the concept of sharing. They do not understand where the content comes from, nor do they care. This lack of ‘pirate education’ could eventually present a negative for content availability.

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Source: [H]ardOCP – To Torrent or to Stream? That Is the Big Piracy Question