Just another news site
Die gescheiterte britische Kurzzeit-Premier Truss wollte auf unbedingtes Wachstum setzen. Das führte zu ihrem schnellen politischen Ende. Was die Lehre daraus ist.
A new study reveals how purchasing a Kodi-powered streaming box changed the Internet and media consumption habits of US households. The researchers use these boxes as a piracy proxy, as they were often loaded with third-party piracy apps. Interestingly, their data show that the use of these boxes led to increased legal consumption through on-demand services such as Netflix and YouTube.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
In recent years, legal video streaming services such as Netflix, HBO and Amazon have flourished.
At the same time, millions of people are streaming from unauthorized sources as well, often paired with perfectly legal streaming platforms and devices.
This mix of legal devices and illegal add-ons is a challenge for law enforcement. Platforms such as Kodi, Plex, and Roku are perfectly legal but can be configured to access pirated content as well.
A few years ago, Kodi found itself at the center of this add-on controversy. The software’s creators always distanced themselves from illegal activity but third-party sellers beyond their control marketed “fully loaded” Kodi boxes as ideal tools for piracy.
This eventually culminated in several lawsuits where sellers of pre-configured boxes were found liable for copyright infringement. The legal campaign was backed by many Hollywood studios as well as Netflix. They argued that illegal streaming boxes hurt their revenues but new research suggests that this may not always be the case.
The pirate streaming box controversy inspired researchers from the University of Delaware and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to find out how these devices actually change people’s consumption and spending habits.
“The lawsuits brought by content providers and MSOs suggest that Kodi-ready streaming boxes facilitated piracy and meaningfully impacted the profitability of content production and distribution. Yet, as has been the case with many past claims of damages due to piracy, there was no direct empirical evidence to demonstrate economic harm,” they write.
To obtain empirical evidence, the researchers tapped into panel data from 10,337 households, which captures a wide range of spending and consumption habits. These data include Internet and TV usage reports as well as billing records for a sixteen-month period spanning 2017-2018, when Kodi-powered streaming boxes were widely used.
The data allowed the researchers to compare habits before and after purchasing a Kodi-powered box. This isn’t a perfect proxy for piracy, as the devices can be used for legitimate purposes as well. However, the article points out that earlier research showed that two-thirds of box owners have pirate add-ons installed.
When simply comparing households that have a Kodi box to those that don’t, it becomes clear that there are vast differences between the two groups. The box owners generate much more internet traffic on average, and they spend more time streaming through Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Twitch, and other platforms.
This finding isn’t particularly surprising or insightful. What happens to households after they first purchase a Kodi box is what the researchers really want to determine. Here, the data paint a compelling picture.
After adopting Kodi, total Internet usage in households increases by 2.88 gigabytes per day. A large part of this traffic is driven by Netflix (0.52 gigabytes) and YouTube (0.57 gigabytes). No significant increases were observed for Amazon Video and Hulu.
As expected, there is also a significant rise in traffic categories that are typically associated with piracy.
Interestingly, traffic to traditional network channel streaming content also increases. According to the researchers, this suggests that households may use the box to substitute viewership that would otherwise take place through a regular TV connection.
Kodi adopters also change their spending habits after buying a box. They sped less money on TV subscriptions and more on their Internet bills as they upgrade to higher tiers. This is in line with what one would expect from cord-cutters.
“Kodi adopters spend 4.2% more on internet service than non-adopters. Incorporating household fixed effects, we estimate a further 3.1% reduction in monthly TV payments among TV subscribers and a 0.9% increase in monthly internet payments among Kodi adopters after the adoption date,” the researchers write.
Overall this suggests that the total monthly bill of Kodi adopters decreases by 1%. This means that there is less revenue going to third parties. However, the researchers caution that this may not translate to lower profits overall, as TV margins tend to be lower than Internet margins.
All-in-all, the study shows that piracy can have both positive and negative effects on the broader economy. And this form of streaming box ‘piracy’ may even help major rightsholders, including Netflix.
“Many large SVOD services including Netflix appear to have benefited from Kodi adoption in spite of their support of lawsuits alleging damages,” the researchers write, adding that Internet companies also observe an increase in revenue and profits.
On the other hand, many broadband companies also generate profit from selling TV subscriptions. So, whether they make more or less profit overall depends on the margins they have for each business. Or as the researchers put it:
“As for harm to the MSO, the observed decrease in revenue corresponds to a decrease in profits only if the margin associated with lost TV revenue is large enough to offset the margin associated with increased internet revenue.”
The study provides valuable insights into the streaming piracy problem. While lawsuits and other legal actions have pretty much put an end to Kodi’s piracy add-on problem, this research will help to put future piracy waves in perspective.
—
A copy of the paper “The Impact of Video Piracy on Content Producers and Distributors” by Zachary Nolan, Jonathan Williams and Haoran Zhang is available here (pdf). This is a working paper that hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Demokratische Abgeordnete forderten in einem Brief das Weiße Haus zu direkten Gesprächen mit Russland auf. Das Schreiben wurde schnell wieder zurückgezogen, weil anderes wichtiger ist als Verhandlungen mit Russland.
Eine aktuelle Übersicht zu schwerwiegenden Nebenwirkungen nach 17 Monaten Impfkampagne ergibt keine neuen Risikosignale. Vektor-Impfstoffe werden kaum noch genutzt, stattdessen mRNA-Vakzine und selten Nuvaxovid.
Das Surly Skid Loader ist ein Shorttail-Lastenrad mit Elektromotor-Unterstützung, das trotz seiner Wendigkeit viel transportieren soll. (E-Bike, Technologie)
Das Surly Skid Loader ist ein Shorttail-Lastenrad mit Elektromotor-Unterstützung, das trotz seiner Wendigkeit viel transportieren soll. (E-Bike, Technologie) Für die Tesla Gigafactory Berlin wird in Brandenburg weiter Wald gerodet. Das Unternehmen plant die Ausweitung seiner Produktionsflächen. (Gigafactory Berlin, Technologie)
Für die Tesla Gigafactory Berlin wird in Brandenburg weiter Wald gerodet. Das Unternehmen plant die Ausweitung seiner Produktionsflächen. (Gigafactory Berlin, Technologie) Warum die Fremdzuschreibung “kultureller Identität” falsch ist; warum das Jammern über “Cancel Culture” trotzdem nicht immer berechtigt ist – und der Verzicht auf das “N-Wort” keine Zumutung. Interview mit Bernhard Schindlbeck. (Teil 2 und Schluss.)
Climate change could unearth frozen viruses and transport them elsewhere.
Enlarge (credit: Andrew Burton/Getty)
The Arctic—that remote, largely undisturbed, 5.5 million square miles of frozen terrain—is heating up fast. In fact, it’s warming nearly four times quicker than the rest of the world, with disastrous consequences for the region and its inhabitants. Many of these impacts you probably know from nature documentaries: ice caps melting, sea levels rising, and polar bears losing their homes. But good news! There is another knock-on effect to worry about: the warming landscape is rewiring viral dynamics, with the potential to unleash new pathogens.
An underappreciated consequence of climate change is how it will exacerbate the spread of infectious disease. As the world heats up, many species are expected to up sticks and meander many miles away from their typical habitat, bringing various pathogens along with them for the ride. This means that previously unacquainted viruses and hosts will meet for the first time, potentially leading to viral spillover—where a virus jumps from one reservoir host to a new one, like our old friend SARS-CoV-2.
Die Maus Air.0 lässt sich für den leichteren Transport zusammenfalten und flach transportieren. Finanziert wird sie über Kickstarter. (Maus, Kickstarter)
Die Maus Air.0 lässt sich für den leichteren Transport zusammenfalten und flach transportieren. Finanziert wird sie über Kickstarter. (Maus, Kickstarter) Adobe entfernt im November einige Pantone-Farben. Betroffene Kunden sehen in Photoshop plötzlich nur noch Schwarz. (Creative Cloud, Adobe)
Adobe entfernt im November einige Pantone-Farben. Betroffene Kunden sehen in Photoshop plötzlich nur noch Schwarz. (Creative Cloud, Adobe) 
You must be logged in to post a comment.