Piracy in Netherlands continues to decline as legal alternatives take over

The number of Dutch people downloading movies and music is declining rapidly as legal alternatives are becoming more easily available, according to market researcher Telecompaper. In November 2013 a massive 41 percent of Dutch downloaded music and films from torrent sites, in January of this year it was 27 percent, NU.nl reports

Of those who still download illegally, over three quarters said they are doing so less and less. Only 23 percent downloaded more over the past year.

Telecompaper attributes this partly to legal alternatives like Netflix, Spotify and Videoland being more readily available and increasing their offer. A lot of music, movies and TV series that were previously hard to find, can now be listened to or watched on these legal channels.

The fact that organizations like Stichting Brein are increasingly going after piraters also plays a role.