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Comment by amazon_not | Hacker News Reader

What's the profit motive? Even at $6 a pop the server expenses have to be recouped.

Adware and other "gimmicks" bundled with the pirated software.

Trying to get a profit from such things was and always will be a shady noob thing to do. Release groups don't exist to make a profit, and that's why they've thrown such a wrench in the for-profit internet. It's not like the types of people who used to hack boxes to set up an FTP drop didn't have the means to purchase legitimate hosting, but a combination of legitimate hosting not allowing such content knowingly, the lack of accountability / traceability on such a system, and the pure pleasure / glory / novelty / status of exploiting your way to free hosting, then using that hosting to distribute your exploits.

It was also an easy way to limit access to your cracks / serials / whatever to only your friends and other respected people in the scene. The exclusivity made it a status symbol, just like with any status symbol.

Fictive scenario. One TV channel executive could hurt the finances of a competing TV channel by seeding the competitions shows, and by this gaining power and influence in her own career

She would be the reason we read the title "Competitor TV Show most pirated TV of 2017"

Way to go TV Channel exec.

They should actually seed their own show. Cheap marketing.

Certain FOX episodes have shown up on file sharing networks over the past years with trailers for other FOX shows preceding the actual content. You don't think networks are already promoting their tv shows directly to the file sharing demographic?

Pirated DVD sales in Asia and Middle East.

There's a vast underground economy to get pirated content. Bootleggers get paid to make the movies available to pirated DVD manufacturers.

Benevolence, most likely.

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