The 2010’s were the golden age of piracy. BitTorrent accounted for a third of all internet traffic, Limewire had more monthly users than FaceBook, and the Pirate Bay was the only video store in town where you were sure to find what you were looking for (hypothetically of course).
The world was slowly switching from physical to digital media, and even people who weren’t particularly tech savvy realised that digital goods could be replicated endlessly with practically zero marginal cost.
At its peak NINETY FIVE percent of all music downloads were pirated because it had become a cheaper, and above all else EASIER way to fill up large digital libraries that were being made possible by cheap digital storage.
But then… it just… stopped…
Since 2012 the internet has gotten faster, storage has gotten cheaper, and people have become more comfortable with computers which should have just accelerated a growing trend… but it didn’t.
Since 2015 peer to peer file sharing has collapsed in popularity, and you might think you already know why, streaming services like Spotify and Netflix we're just better, easier and safer ways to access content.
And now, as these services have become markedly worse, and simultaneously more expensive, Piracy is making a comeback… It seems pretty simple right?
The only problem is that’s not the whole story… Realistically these companies knew this day would come; it was just really important that they could pretend it wouldn’t…