If the movie industry wonders why piracy seems to persist, here’s one possible answer: people pirate ’em because they don’t have the option of paying for a legal copy online.
At least that’s according to a new website called PiracyData.org, reports the Washington Post. Mashing together lists of the most-pirated movies from TorrentFreak with data from CanIStreamIt, a search engine that helps find legitimate sources for copyrighted films, PiracyData.org has found that many of the films people want to watch the most just aren’t available. The Post explains:
In last week’s results, not a single film was available from streaming from services like Netflix or Amazon Prime. Only three of the top 10 films, The Lone Ranger, After Earth, and This is the End, were available for online rental… And just six of the top 10 movies (Pacific Rim, The Internship, The Lone Ranger, Monsters university, After Earth, and This Is the End) were available for online purchase.
And last week was no anomaly; the site has seen the same thing over the past few weeks since it started up. All of which suggests that, before the movie industry continues to gripe, it may as well try and do something to help itself. [PiracyData.org via Washington Post]