Business and Corporate Law: Evaluating Netflix's Anti-Piracy Team

This report critically analyzes Netflix's anti-piracy strategies, examining the company's efforts to combat media piracy and protect its original content. It discusses Netflix's approach to removing unauthorized content, the skepticism surrounding its goal to make piracy "socially unacceptable," and the alternative takedown efforts. The report also considers the views of technology lawyers and internet policy experts, along with the effectiveness of past anti-piracy campaigns. Furthermore, it contrasts Netflix's strategies with suggestions for reducing piracy, such as lowering access prices and increasing media accessibility, while also considering the limitations of strict copyright protection and the potential for consumer circumvention. The report concludes that while Netflix's initiatives are commendable, their ultimate success in curbing piracy remains uncertain due to evolving consumer behavior and the challenges of controlling online content distribution.

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11/15/2018

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Piracy is an issue that is increasing rapidly day after day. With the development of
technology, it become very easy for a person to steal the content of others. Although protection
of copyright is there still the issue of piracy is continued to be there. Many of the companies are
developing their own plans and policies to deal with this issue. The issue of Illegal consumption
of content of others exist more in cases of media activities, and therefore it is well known as
Media Piracy. The presented report is focused on the given discussion piece which is an article
covering news on Netflix Anti-Piracy team and their policies. In addition to this, the discussion
piece will be critically analyzed in relation to other readings.
Discussion
As mentioned above, that media piracy is being a concern for many of the organizations,
Netflix has recently launched some new practices to control this issue. Netflix is an American
based media-service provider and is being tough on piracy. This is to inform that recently this
company been much success because of some of it is series such as The Crown, House of Cards
and Stranger things. The lead focus of the company in this area is to prevent the access of
unauthorized content or original content without making the payment for the same. In this
manner, Netflix made a job posting, according to which the manager would be required to
improve the company’s attempt to remove the unauthorized content from the website. While
studying the discussion piece, it is to mention that the lead focus of Netflix was to make people
unable in accessing such content over the internet as the company believed that it is the only way
to prevent the issue of Media piracy.

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The statement of technology lawyer, David Lawyer is necessary to know while
discussing the Netflix New policy to control piracy issues. David has stated that it is very clear
that Netflix is trying to secure it is a stockpile of original content and for the same, there are
many laws which protect the intellectual property of an organization. However, there is a
confusion that how Netflix will make media piracy a “Socially Unacceptable” task (Harris,
2017a). In conjunction with this, Fewer, director of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public
Interest Clinic also called himself skeptical for the same. Everybody knows that what Netflix is
going to do but no one is aware that how the company will do the same. Fewer further stated that
many of the companies have decided to control the subjective issues in the past and faced so
many challenges. By giving the examples of Anti Pirated Video prepared by Motion Picture
Association of America, he said that many of such efforts have proved wasted and it would be a
surprise if Netflix will do something different and get success in the same.
In the subjective video, Motion Picture Association has described the downloading of
pirated films is stealing and compared the same with the steal of a car, TV and a handbag. The
video has taken as a fun instead of providing a message to people that Piracy is a crime (Urban
Dictionary, 2018).

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Source: - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmZm8vNHBSU)
This video has proven a big failure and therefore the success of plans of Netflix was also
in danger. According to the job posting, the ultimate goal of the company is not to round up each
pirate, but the same is to make the Piracy a socially unacceptable activity. The manner in which
Netflix will make the piracy an uncool thing is still pending to be revealed. The company has
another alternative in case of social pressure policy failure. The recently appointed manager will
put the notice and takedown efforts. According to these efforts, the company will make it harder
to find the pirated stuff online. In this support, Vobile, the global anti-piracy company reports
many of the links of pirated content to Google and request to remove those links on behalf of
Netflix. As per the Transparency report of Google, Vobile has reported around 76000 links
where pirated data was available of Netflix original content (Harris, 2017b).

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On the different side, Fewer believed that the best suitable way to reduce piracy cases is
to make the data available to all easily. Netflix supported the idea and decreased the prices of
streaming services. In order to make a critical analysis of this discussion piece, this is to be stated
that according to Trajce Cvetkovski, people do not care about laws or any other boundaries.
Consumers do a challenge to the technological barriers. The policies and plans developed by
Netflix do not seem to be as successful as the company thinks. Further, this is to critically say
that the aim of an anti-piracy team of Netflix is in danger to achieve. Cvetkovski said that from
last 2 decades all the anti-piracy policies failed to work. People do not care about the educational
programs or legal actions in the cases of copyright infringement. Social norms to control the
issue is already there and people see the likelihood of punishment relatively low. In the
conclusion of the argument, Cvetkovski suggested that corporates should decrease the access
prices for their media and should enhance the levels of media access in order to prevent the issue
of copyright infringement (Cvetkovski, 2014). Netflix also decided to do the same, but the same
does not look practical. Wishes are limitless. People want more when they get more. In such a
manner, it is not expected that the new policy of Netflix will work in an effective manner.
Moving the discussion towards another reading of the weak, William Patry made his
focus on another aspect. He believed that people do copyrights infringement because of many of
the limitations on them and hence copyright protection can serve better to the whole society if
work according to a happy medium (Patry, 2009). The author said that if a company holds the
copyright too tight, there is the possibility of losing customers and without the existence of a
customer, there is no benefit to protect the copyrights. The author suggested that apart from the
developing the focus on copyright protection, there are many other ways that a company can find
to be successful because the control, that companies want over the internet is impossible to

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achieve. Many people can find the other way out. Netflix has made the whole sole focus on the
protection of copyright infringement and expected to close down the web pages where pirated
data is available, but that is not a solution. People will find another ways to access the pirated
media over the internet and in such a manner the efforts of Netflix are expected to be a failure or
not so much succeed as expected.
Conclusion
This is to conclude that copyright protection is a concern but that should not be done in a
very strict manner. Netflix has planned to ban the webpages where pirated content is available,
which is a good initiative. However, this cannot guarantee to prevent the issue of copyright
infringement and use of pirated media as people will surely put more efforts to access such
contents in future. On the different site, by providing more access to pirated shows on the TVs of
people, Netflix is all set to control the issue, which is a good initiate. Nevertheless, there is a
possibility that people would be greedier and use of pirated media will be there as present.

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References
(2018). [Image]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmZm8vNHBSU
Cvetkovski, T. (2014). The farcical side to the war on media piracy: a popular case of Divine
Comedy?. Media, Culture & Society, 36(2), 246-257.
Harris, S. (2017a). Netflix's anti-piracy team aims to make stealing content uncool. Retrieved
From: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/netflix-piracy-content-downloading-copyright-
1.4043163
Harris, S. (2017b). Netflix's anti-piracy team aims to make stealing content uncool. Retrieved
From: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/netflix-piracy-content-downloading-copyright-
1.4043163
Patry, W. (2009). Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars. New York: Oxford University Press.
Urban Dictionary. (2018). you wouldn't steal a car. Retrieved
From:https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=you%20wouldn%27t%20steal
%20a%20car