Slate has an article regarding the rise in streaming videos as a vehicle to watch pirated movies.

As the MPAA has focused on BitTorrent downloading, however, a newer, more popular kind of piracy method has come along. BitTorrent is out. Streaming video is in.

Writer Dan Morrell reports that the delivery method of streaming videos allows viewers to quickly determine whether the quality of the pirated copy is worth watching.

The rise in popularity of streaming, however, isn’t due to the MPAA’s ineffective policing. It’s the delivery, stupid. Want to download a movie from BitTorrent? First, you have to go to a torrent search site and enter Transformers into the search field. Then, you have to choose which file to download and cross your fingers that the download time will be closer to three hours than three days. You also have to hope that the film hasn’t been shot with a handheld camera.

Streaming, on the other hand, is instant. One of the more popular streaming sites, Nabolister, has a simple search bar in the middle of the page. Type in Transformers, and you’ll get a series of links. Most of these will open new pages with embedded players that resemble the YouTube interface. Click on the play button, and your movie starts rolling. Within seconds, you can tell if you’re watching a high-quality video.

Globally, movie piracy is currently listed on the Havocscope Contraband Index at $18.2 Billion.