Technical friction is also a factor. It’s much like speed bumps on a road. They don’t prevent people from going 50 in a 25. But they make it more of a PITA, even when a cop also might pull you over.

Considering the fact many popular releases hit the torrents often times before official version is even available anywhere I dont think your speedbump metaphor is really working here =)

Not really. The speed bumps affect everyone, but it's enough that one person or group cracks the DRM and makes the result available for everyone.

It doesn’t have to be much friction to have an impact. People take the path of least resistance.

But it does, because of the effect just mentioned. 99.999% of people can take the path of least resistance while the 1 in 100,000 exception bears all of the friction for all of them.

Perhaps though the real friction is not exactly technical but that the piracy sites don't have the same attention-capturing "feed" or recommendation mechanisms set up. Just the friction of having to make choices.

There are still entire websites dedicated for TV shows and music (and after you have looked at them once, they show up on Android feed), Facebook and Twitter feeds, etc. And I guess everyone agrees that Netflix recommendations are not that great.

"99.999% of people" aren't pirating media. The profits of the media industry speaks for their own success. They are doing fine.

I didn't say that 99.999% of people are pirating media.

This would leave around "70000" people globally who do. The number sounds suspiciously small to me.

Speedbumps are way more effective than cops