Streaming Sites Thwart Studios' Piracy Crackdowns

Industry fears revenue meltdown as watching pirated video online goes mainstream
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 5, 2009 6:17 AM CST
Streaming Sites Thwart Studios' Piracy Crackdowns
Movie studios are losing the fight against piracy, largely because of the rise of online video streaming.   (©vlidi)

The rise of video streaming sites has defeated movie studios' toughest anti-piracy efforts, the New York Times reports. Consumers can watch copyrighted material online—often from sites hosted in countries with slack anti-piracy rules—more easily than ever. The industry estimates "digital theft" now accounts for 40% of all its lost revenue.

Watching illegally streamed videos online is becoming much more prevalent and is bound to increase as the economy slumps, warn studio execs. Lawsuits have been launched against sites that link to pirated material, but the entertainment industry is also attempting to buck the theft trend by working to make more material available online through their own sites. "That’s how you start to marginalize piracy," one analyst said.
(More streaming movies stories.)

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