. Piracy has become one of the most discussed issues in today’s world. Scholars have taken a different view on the matter. Some have chosen to see it as a technological advancement, a way that allows the less fortunate in the society to enjoy the same movies as the fortunate and a way of increasing the social range. On the other hand, others have condemned the act and have vigorously defended their opinion on the matter.
Firstly, piracy is the leading cause of loss of revenues in the movie industry. A detailed study was carried out to pinpoint just how much money the film industry losses to this unethical practice. Movie studios lose more than six billion dollars annually to global wholesale only. More revenue is also lost due to the decrease in sales of tickets to movie theaters and the sale of DVDs. Sale of movie DVDs and tickets have always been major revenue earners in the industry. A survey done in 2005 showed that the United States was worst affected by this practice and lost close to one and a half billion dollars. (McBride and Geoffrey 6)
The prices of movies have had to go down to compete with the free pirated copies. Arguing from an economist point of view, a movie cannot be worth much if one can get the same copy online for free. Most people would rather get the free copy than buy the original (Chellappa Shivendu 144). Furthermore, the decrease in prices of original movies and music has not managed to compensate the lost revenue. Even though there are more copies sold, it is incomparable to projected sales if pirating was not an issue.
The quality of pirated material is often not as good as that of originals. The content may not also be as precise and accurate as the original product. Watching a pirated copy may therefore not be as enjoyable as the original movie. However, scholars have defended the act of counterfeiting a film by arguing that the projected sales of the original copies are incorrect. The reasoning is that just because someone downloaded a free copy does not mean that they could have watched the movie if they had to pay for it. Some people would opt not to watch the film altogether.
Availability of free copies online has benefited production houses even though they shy from admitting this fact. In an interview, Smith and Rahul quote the CEO of Time Warner, "I have to admit it, the much-discussed fantasy series is HBO's most popular, and if you go to people who are watching it without subs, it's a tremendous word-of-mouth thing.” Jeff Bewkes admits that free downloads lead to more people paying subs. He explained that as much as The Game of Thrones was the most pirated movie in 2013, it was the highest income earner for the production house (Smith, and Rahul 328).
Pirating also helps movies reach more people across the globe. It would be time-consuming if the distribution of films was manual. (Yar, 679). Furthermore, many people would be left out of the loop because of competing needs for income. Low-income families would not be in a position to watch movies. As much as the act is unethical and should be condemned, we cannot ignore the fact that this is part of technological advancement that we have continuously encouraged.
Works Cited
Chellappa, Ramnath K., and Shivendu Shivendu. "Economic implications of variable technology standards for movie piracy in a global context." Journal of Management Information Systems 20.2 (2003): 137-168. Print.
McBride, Sarah, and Geoffrey A. Fowler. "Studios see big rise in estimates of losses to movie piracy." CHANGE 17 (2006): 0-08. Print.
Smith, Michael D., and Rahul Telang. "Competing with free: the impact of movie broadcasts on DVD sales and internet piracy 1." mis Quarterly 33.2 (2009): 321-338. Print.
Yar, Majid. "The global ‘epidemic’ of movie ‘piracy’: crime-wave or social construction?" Media, Culture & Society 27.5 (2005): 677-696. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment