Netflix wants to shame you into not watching films and TV shows illegally

Netflix is exploring new measures that will make it much harder to pirate TV shows and films online.

The streaming giant has revealed that it is aiming to turn digital piracy into a “socially unacceptable fringe activity”, and it is hoping to do this with the help of “new technological solutions”.

It's an ambitious-sounding plan, which suggests the company could try to shame digital pirates into paying for its services.

The company is creating and releasing an increasing amount of original content, such as House of Cards and Narcos, and wants to protect it from people who are illegally watching it for free.

A new job posting spotted by TorrentFreak shows that Netflix is looking to recruit a copyright and content protection coordinator.

This person would be tasked with boosting the company’s anti-piracy efforts, and making it harder for people to illegally access Netflix content through platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Periscope, Google Search, Bing Search, VK and DailyMotion.

“We have a growing number of Originals launching each month that need to be protected from piracy,” the posting reads.

“The growing Global Copyright & Content Protection Group is looking to expand its team with the addition of a coordinator. He or she will be tasked with supporting the Netflix Global Copyright & Content Protection Group in its internal tactical take down efforts with the goal of reducing online piracy to a socially unacceptable fringe activity.”

As well as managing the takedown process and scanning websites used for piracy, the copyright and content protection coordinator will also monitor trends, “[gather] data on pirate streaming sites, cyberlockers and usenet platforms” and “evaluate new technological solutions to tackle piracy online”.

Netflix hasn’t expanded on what those mysterious-sounding new solutions could be, but it suggests that the site is treating piracy more seriously than ever.

The company last week increased prices for customers in the UK and US.