• by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer @pjbtweet, August 16, 2016

Every new technology opens a new world for scammers, which in a big way unviewable ad scams prove. But opportunity abounds.

Now, in fact, the march of progress has changed the art of video piracy. It’s new and improved! Gone, or going, are illegal bit torrent and pirate download sites.

Today’s most sophisticated thieves are streaming their stolen video.

The British-based anti-piracy outfit Muso, says nearly 75% of the 78.5 billion visits to film and TV piracy sites last year were streaming sites.

The U.S. is tops in piracy, owning 12% of the market, though “owning” is probably not the right word.

The shift is not so much in attitude. The ends still justify the means for pirates. It’s just that the “means” have changed.

Torrent-based sites like the Pirate Bay and Kickass Torrents represented 17.2% of overall user visits with direct-download sites accounting for the remainder. last year.  Kickass seems to have been amputated; In July, the feds seized seven domain names associated with the pirate, and overseas authorities arrested its Ukrainian leader in Poland.

Since 2008, Kickass directory of films and TV shows facilitated $1 billion in illegal downloads, according to Variety. Federal authorities said it had an astonishing 50 million unique visitors a month to various Websites it controlled.

If there’s a bright side, sort of, it’s that mobile pirated or torrent streaming of TV and film material is still relatively a non-starter. More than 70% still comes from desktops, though mobile streaming increased 5%.  

That’s not what’s happening with pirated music, by the way’ 28% of all visits to pirate sites came through mobile devices, up 8%. And there was a 25% rise in the use of so-called YouTube Ripper sites, used primarily for downloading MP3’s from YouTube music Videos. Overall, though, there was 5% decline in pirated music.

pj@mediapost.com