content: I'm Australian and I can vouch for this. Just about everyone I know gets their content illegally in some way, but we also do go out and buy it if we can afford it. For me the main thing is being able to watch a show the day it's out in other places so that I avoid spoilers and can talk to people anywhere about what's happening in it. The government are definitely ruining the industry here though, they're doing everything they can to kill torrenting, which will definitely do more harm than good I feel. Piracy has been integrating itself into the media consumption-distribution industry, trying to push it out in one fell swoop can't help anything.  If I remember correctly, Australia has some of the fiercest / strictest content controls on graphic (violence, sex, etc.) media, so legitimate copies of something (movie, book, music, videogame) tend to be fewer than in other regions, correct? If so, then I am not surprised with the amount of torrents and use of NewsGroups.