Most companies don’t openly credit piracy for boosting their business, particularly if they’re in the content distribution business. Hollywood and the RIAA tend to be touchy about that kind of topic. According to CEO Reed Hastings, piracy helped Netflix by encouraging people to viewing content whenever they chose via an online device, rather than at fixed viewing times and hours that were set by television networks and studio heads.

While such statements will likely lead to teeth-grinding in Hollywood, there’s quite a bit of overlap between using a legitimate service like Netflix vs. downloading content from an illicit site. In both cases, the end-user controls how the content is viewed and the device in question. By some metrics, however, using Netflix is meaningfully easier than downloading files from the Pirate Bay or other torrent sites.

Before anyone lights torches, here me out. If you’re technologically proficient, managing your own A/V files is likely second nature. If you rip or create your own H.264 or HEVC files for personal archival, the idea that just downloading some episodes of a TV show constitutes a technical barrier is likely laughable. If, however, you’re the kind of user who finds Windows Explorer a touch intimidating, than the arrival of a one-click viewing service is a godsend.

With Netflix or an analogous service, you don’t have to worry about torrent file accuracy, queueing up multiple episodes in a row, or sourcing high-quality content. All of these features are taken care of for you, which is to say that Netflix delivers a lot of the convenience of pirating content while eliminating a significant number of headaches.

“I think Spain will be one of our most successful countries. There is a high rate of Internet connectivity and a population that is accustomed to the use of electronic commerce and that has shown signs of being interested in our product. We are very optimistic,” Hastings says. “We offer a simpler and more immediate alternative to finding a torrent.”

According to Hastings, high piracy rates in Canada and the Netherlands were actually a predictor of his company’s success in both markets and he expects Spain to present a similar opportunity.

The one issue that continues to dog Netflix internationally is the use of VPNs. If you’ve traveled outside the country, you’ve likely noticed that content availability drops dramatically outside of the United States. According to Hollywood, using a VPN service to access content you pay for is actually the same as stealing the content via TPB, which helpfully illustrates the fact that the license agreements that restrict show availability by geographic area are more about control than “protecting the rights of artists.”

Hastings isn’t going to tell people to go out and buy VPN access to bypass region locks — the CEO noted that the company will launch with a small core of available content and expand outwards from there, hopefully in fairly short order. Estimated monthly price is eight euros per month according to Torrentfreak.