Controlling digital piracy via domain name system blocks: A natural experiment
研究通过域名系统批量屏蔽盗版网站对盗版活动和合法媒体消费的影响，发现显著减少盗版流量但未显著改变合法替代品消费，仅电视收视率略有上升。
We study the impact of batch DNS filtering of copyright-infringing websites, a novel administrative-based process that does not require judicial involvement. In partnership with a large telecommunication provider, we measure the impact of this intervention on piracy activity and the legal alternatives integrated into households' media subscription bundles, an aspect largely unexplored in prior literature. We find a significant reduction in Internet traffic, which proxies piracy activity. However, we do not observe statistically significant changes in the consumption of the legal alternatives under consideration, only a slight increase in TV viewership. To further understand these outcomes, we examine the heterogeneity of these results based on households' pre-block usage intensity of digital piracy and demographic characteristics. Our work contributes to the literature on the effectiveness of piracy control strategies and informs policy makers and industry practitioners about the benefits and limitations of DNS-based website blocking.