I recently read YET ANOTHER article on how much money the studios are loosing on movies and music to pirates stealing on-line. It went on in detail of the billions of dollars lost to pirates, and the need to put even stronger digital rights management on DVDs, especially now that HD DVDs are coming to market.
Every time I read an article like this I get angry at the hype. Yes, there is a growing problem with pirates on digital media, I will agree. But the loss numbers the studio’s like to claim is total BS.
Of all those people who take content without paying, how many would really buy the content if they could not get it free any way else? I have read some research into this question, and the number if VERY low. It is BS to claim that every stolen copy is the equivalent of a lost sale for that content, and thus lost revenue.
This has been true with cable TV theft, satellite TV theft, and now DVD theft. For free, these so called pirates are willing download (rather slowly as you pointed out) and watch for free, a typically bad copy of the content. But if asked to pay for that same movie, most would not, especially at the prices the studios charge. And ESPECIALLY at lower quality.
Yet, for every copy the MPAA or RIAA ESTIMATES was copied or downloaded, they then claim the retail price in their loss total as a lost “sale” even if most would not buy it anyway.
The cable and satellite industry did the same. They would estimate the number of people stealing their signal, then make some fantastic claim of losses in the billions each year by multiplying that estimate by the cost of an EVERYTHING package, and say that was their lost revenue to theft. Strangely, when offered amnesty, not too many people took the plunge. And those that do convert to paying customer rarely opt for the ‘everything’ package.
The bottom line comes down to greed. Apple computer proved with iTunes that if you price items fairly, people would convert to buy. They converted a good number of ‘pirates’ into legit customers. How odd that the RIAA is still crying about the losses rather than applauding the increased revenue! Sure, some people still steal, but they will always find a free ride, so perhaps we need to get over them.
Unfortunately, almost all the ‘pay to download’ movie and video services I have seen so far want one to pay the same price for a slow download that one would pay for the physical media, and that is just greedy. My favorite example of studio greed: Why does full season of the original Star Trek on DVD sell for well over $100, while many new series sell for less than $40? Especially given that this series has been on the air and collected revenues forover 30 years and made a LOT of money already! Only one answer,greed. Because they can charge that, they do. No wonder people copy DVDs! I just do not understand why the studios are surprised!
It is also sad that when these ‘losses’ take place, the VERY high paid studio executives will take it out of the lowest individuals on the totem pole. While their salaries and bonuses do not suffer, the poor slobs that built a set, for example (the one seen in the trailer asking you not to steal this movie) gets his/her bonuses cut in response to these fictitious losses .
Until they can change the perception that this is not a ‘lossless’ crime, that is, that no physical loss takes place (as in stealing a car or bike for example) it will be hard to combat the theft. It is very hard to convince most people that a digital copy to someone who would never pay for it in the first place resulted in a loss for the studio. How can you count as a loss something you would never have received in the first place?
Lastly, ANY solution must include ‘fair use’ of the content. Again, the greed of the studios wants us to pay for the same content on each and EVER different device we wish to watch or listen to it on. Again, Apple got this right with iTunes and the 5-computer rule, as well as the ability to burn a DVD of your music. Excellent fair use rules.
By the way, I AM one of those people who watches in HD at home, and, on occasion, watches on my laptop (using TiVo to Go) and even watches on my handheld Treo on the train (various products to convert recorded TV to my handheld) and it work great. But I have no intention of paying three times to do that as the studio’s want me to. I truly believe ubiquitous content is possible, but it must be properly priced. It all comes down to ‘how much profit does one really need?’ and how greedy the studios will continue to be as these products become mainstream. For my $2.00, I think Apple iPod videos are too expensive for lousy quality, small videos, but it IS a step in the right direction idea wise.
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