The thriving business of online piracy

A court in New Zealand is hearing an extradition appeal of internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom on Monday, for alleged online copyright piracy and money laundering.

But five years after authorities shut down Dotcom's operation, the business of online video and music piracy is still going strong.

Al Jazeera’s Tom Ackerman reports from Washington DC.

[weldon]

thanks for telling me that pirate bay is up again.

[jemszjemsz]

Install Ad block to decrease the risk of malware.. Also works great with Al Jazeera youtube videos.

[SuperClavera]

Not very strange that such a business thrives when the alternatives are absurdely bad.
I don't want to pay HBO for anything other than Game of Thrones and I want to be able to see all the episodes as soon as they are released.
How can I do this without piracy?

[cristianhendre]

Lucky me I live in Romania and we don't have laws for piracy.

[beachsandinspector]

Blame hollywood for piracy, they refuse to release titles in a format people want, and with that regional coding also is anti-competitive, I wanted a title not available in Australia, also not available in the US but was available in the UK but no longer sold.. what options does someone have ?

[johnroyce]

Fun fact: Most people pirate OUT OF CONVENIENCE. Make legal options easier than the illegal ones.

[leviathan-jyrl]

I don't think it is even possible to spread malware through audio and video file formats.

[faheemawan]

today google box is more dangerous then this piracy

[Erich]

The problem with these TV shows, is that they keep putting ads in the middle of the episode, and most of the content is so rubbish, its no even worth the money. But for games, who the heck is going to pay $79 for a game that turns out to be absolutely rubbish? 20 years ago, you could buy decent games for $29-39 and even before you buy it, you could download a demo! Now, there is no such a thing called a demo.

[Janihavik]

"users run a serious risk of getting malware..." >.< same risk as every commercial site on earth stopid! o.0

[LiEnby]

Theres more risk of getting infected from downloading games or programs (as they have executable files)
if your smart about it (torrent only in a virtual machine, if its a program dissasseble / decompile) if its a media file its pretty safe its mostly exploits on the site itself

also use a linux-based VM. for even less risk.

[franzb]

piracy will never stop. it's like drugs. either you leave it alone and ignore it or you will be crushed by it.

[Vladimir]

Just compare the face of Assisting Atorrney General against Tickass founder.

[jhonmacraimbanajokora]

Business? Piracy started out like a business but then yoohoo it transformed to a charity of literature and mostly little to none profit

[Contevent]

As far as I know, pirates are usually prudent and keep their computer clean through various ways.
I Wonder if it should be fought at all, considering how widespread and easy it is. The internet is about sharing information, and there is little to no control over it.

In my opinion, they should make some kind of Download fee along with any internet connexion and focus on really Dangerous information sharing related to pedophilia, terrorist attacks, espionnage, etc...

[Nairod]

What a nice way to Inform the uneducated youth, this will expand the Hacker culture even further.

[Alfador]

So if I share files through torrents while using Tor I'm safe right?