As cost of living pressures bite, accessing all your favourite shows is becoming difficult to afford.
1News spoke to an Aucklander who regularly downloads movies illegally on the internet.
"It's been more and more recently," she says. "I've had to cancel streaming subscriptions, because they've become too expensive."
Since the pandemic rates of online piracy have spiked and they continue to climb.
According to data from piracy-focused research company MUSO, released earlier this year, visits to piracy websites went up 18% in 2022.
"We're probably in line with that uptick," says Kiwi technology commentator Peter Griffin. "$30 to $70 billion US a year, that's the cost."
He says the cost of living is exacerbating the situation, with streaming platforms here increasing subscription fees and changing access rights.
"We're seeing the likes of Netflix clamping down on password sharing. That was actually trialled in New Zealand".
Under New Zealand law, if you download illegal content for your own use, the police won't come after you, but the copyright owner can.
If they choose to, you get three strikes before you're fined, up to a maximum of $15,000.
But this hardly ever happens.
"The reason why they're not using it is it costs the copyright owner," says copyright expert Associate Professor Alex Sims. "So for every notice that is sent, that is $25, and they don't want to pay that fee."
She says it's really down to the content creators to clamp down on piracy.
"What's happened in the past, is for copyright owners to change the business model."
Griffin elaborates on that point, saying, "it's spread across more platforms, which means you can't go to one source to get all the content you want, which is frustrating consumers, and they're looking for other options, and unfortunately, piracy is really just a click away."
SHARE ME