In an article “Go ahead steal all you can”,  it is said that Netflix, a provider of on-demand Internet streaming media, “enabling freeloading could be a counter intuitively savvy promotional tool for getting potential customers hooked on a product they wouldn’t otherwise sample.” (http://www.bluetoad.com/article/Digital/1439642/165054/article.html)

This illegal downloading is like software piracy.  This goes against our belief that piracy hurts a company’s revenue.  Then why does it work?  Well, it works like a free trial, or giving free samples.  On the internet, there are a lot of programs that let you use for free.  It is a channel to reach customers and gain their awareness.

This also happened to Microsoft in its early days.   Bill Gates once said “….in China, … people don’t pay for the software… Someday they will, though. As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.” (http://www.itwire.com/it-industry-news/market/23137-how-piracy-benefits-microsoft)