New academic research shows that blocking pirate site domain names effectively decreases internet traffic and, presumably, piracy. However, widespread blocking by ISPs doesn’t necessarily boost the use of paid VoD or TV services. When it comes to legal alternatives, the researchers only find a marginal boost in TV viewership.

In recent years, website blocking has become one of the most widely-used anti-piracy enforcement mechanisms in the world.

ISPs in several dozen countries prevent subscribers from accessing a variety of ‘pirate’ sites. While new blocks are added every month, research on the effectiveness of these efforts is rather limited.

One of the earliest pieces of academic research, based on UK data, showed that the local Pirate Bay blockade had little effect on legal consumption. Instead, pirates turned to alternative pirate sites, proxies, or VPNs to bypass the virtual restrictions.

The rest of this article can be read on TorrentFreak.com

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