[toyg]

It's not about detection, it's about legality.

Bittorrent is legally clear-cut, because the sharing part is a clear copyright infringement (you are distributing the work without authorization).

Streaming (typically) isn't that clear, because consuming the work is technically not forbidden by copyright law in most countries. It's a bit like reading a book in a bookshop without buying it.

Detection is fairly easy in both cases, they just cannot go after consumers.

[rocketbop]

> It's not about detection, it's about legality.

I suppose I'm wondering about the realistic ability to detect and ability to prosecute. I'm not really concerned with legality for legality's sake.

[toyg]

The legality gives people power to knock on the doors of ISPs, who can (and often do) know everything. Even without that, authorities can (and occasionally do) run honeypots after they find and disband the main site operators.

There is no technical solution to the anti-piracy war, it's entirely a legal problem.