[threesquared]

A good deal of it is status, like being involved in the most prolific group etc. But also the way "The Scene" works is almost gamified. Groups battle each other to obtain pre-release material and then race each other to disseminate to the sites they affiliate with. If you are first you win the PRE and your releases is the only one accepted by the whole scene. It becomes addictive.

Secondly money is involved, less scrupulous sites run pay to leech servers where people pay for slots and some groups are donated hardware etc for access. Also there are connections to various forms of cyber crime from contacts you can make from being involved.

[kristofferR]

There's likely also the sharing is caring aspect, millions of people really appreciate their efforts - and they're aware of that.

On the flip side some people really doesn't appreciate it, which makes it even more fun I guess (unless you get caught).